Behind the Mask
by Bandgirlflute
Summary: Tom Riddle's world was full of lies and hatred, he had never learned what love is. But what happens when a certain girl comes into his world? Will she be able to melt his heart?
1. Return to Hogwarts

Author's Note: Ok so here is my first Harry Potter story! Now in this story, Tom is 17 and Hagrid hasn't been expelled yet. For this story Tom is opening the Chamber of Secrets for the first time. I know that he opened it when he was 15 or 16, but it is my story, so if you don't like it, don't read it. Anyway, here is chapter one, enjoy!

**Behind the Mask**

**Chapter One: Return to Hogwarts**

A tall boy was walking down the train station, he pushed his luggage in front of him. It was Tom Riddles Seventh and final years at Hogwarts, and the thought of it made him depressed. He was not ready yet for his last year at Hogwarts, to him this was his home. He had another bad summer again, he had to go back to the orphanage, but Tom had made a promise that he would never go back there again after this year.

He rounded a corner, there, a few feet from him was the gate that would lead him to the train. Tom stopped and waiting for the muggles to pass. As he waited, he started to think about the first time that he had set foot on the train that had take him to a new world. Tom could actually see his eleven year old self standing in front of the gate.

_He shirt hung loosely from his shoulders, his pants a little baggy. These were the cloths that he had bought along with his second hand robes in Diagon Alley. He remembered that he was very nervous, many questions running through his mind. What if Dumbledore had made a mistake? What would happen when he got there? Would he be accepted? But most importantly, how do I find the train? He stood there for about ten minutes, debating weither if he should ask someone, or just keep standing there, hoping that someone would come and help him. Since his pride got in his way of asking someone for help, he just stood there, praying that someone would come along. _

_It was ten minutes before the train would be taking off, and Tom was starting to get even more nervous. He looked around, there standing a few feet behind him was a couple and their son. He noticed that the boy was his age,_ _and that he was pushing a suitcase that was marked Hogwarts. His heart lifted as he saw the family come near him. As the family came nearer, he could hear the father talking to his son._

"_We are very late, I told you to hurry up Abraxas. If we miss the train, then you won't be going to Hogwarts at all!"_

"_It isn't my fault father, the stupid house elves were slow getting my stuff ready." The boy said._

"_Don't make excuses Abraxas, now hurry up, we only have eight minutes." The man said. _

_Tom stepped asides as the family walked up to the brick wall. He watched as the family just walked up to the wall and went right through it. He looked around, to see if anyone else had seen the family disappear. He looked back, the wall looked pretty solid to him, he wondered how the family disappeared. Maybe he had to walk through the wall, just as the family did. He whiled his cart around, he faced the wall. He took a deep breath, he started to walk fast. The wall was coming closer, he broke into a run. It was feet from him, he closed his eyes, bracing himself for a crash. But it never came, he just kept running. Finally he stopped, he opened his eyes._

Tom was draw from is thoughts as the clock dong. He was still standing in front of the brick wall. He breath in deeply, he remembered that he hadn't crashed, but found himself in front of a scarlet train. He remembered his excitement, how he had found it, and that he wouldn't be seeing this place again for a long time.

The path before himm was now clear, he took one last look at the train station. He grinned as he started to walk to the gate. A few seconds later he was on the other side, looking again at the scarlet train, he was going home. He crossed the platform to the one of the trains door. He climbed onto the train, and headed for the Heads compartment.

It had been Tom's dream to become the Head Boy since he was in his second year. He had worked hard for all of those years to become a prefect. When he had gotten his letter for this year, he wasn't surprised that he had been given the position of Head Boy. He wonder who had got the position of Head Girl.

There were still students getting on and off the train from saying good bye to their parents. Tom kept looking in front of him, ignoring the students that passed by him.

A few Hufflepuff girls walked past him, they giggled as they passed him. He didn't even look at them as they walked by. He had been getting this sort of attention from a lot of girls ever since his fifth year. He had grown tall over the years. His dark black wavy hair came above his eyebrows, his pale skin was darker then usual, which gave him a look of mystery. His cold blue eyes were like chips of ice. His good looks had got him to many levels, he could have any girl that he had wanted, boys envied him, the female teachers even fell for his charm.

Charm, another thing that had got him everywhere. He had used charm to kiss up to his teachers, to get anything he wanted, to gain his followers, his Death Eaters.

Tom reached the Head compartment, he pushed back the door, he looked inside. Nobody was there, the Head Girl must still be outside saying good bye to her parents. He went inside the compartment and closed the door behind him. He opened his suitcase and pulled out his robe. Once he had his robe on, he grabbed his luggage and placed them in the racks. He reached inside of his pocket, he pulled out a badge. He held the badge in his long white fingers, it was silver. Carved into it was the letter H, curved around it was a green snake, its tongue poked out. Tom ran his fingers around the cool edges, admiring it. He reached up to his collar, and pinned his head badge. He took a seat by the window, he looked out of it. He could see that the platform was less crowded as students were getting on the train. He sighed, wishing that the new prefects would hurry up and come in here, also he wanted to see who the new Head Girl was.

After about five minutes, Tom felt a jerk, he looked out the window. The train was starting to move away very slowly, he watched as the parents waved good bye to their children. The train rounded the corner, it started to gather speed. Still looking out the window, he saw the city pass by him. He was starting to get annoyed that the Head Girl wasn't here yet, when the door slide open. He looked up to see who it was.

A tall girl stood in the doorway. She had raven black hair, and had smoky gray eyes. At the moment she was wearing a pair of tight jeans, and a black t-shirt, covered by her Hogwarts robe. Tom knew who she was, her name was Amber Lynwood, she was in Ravenclaw. He looked her up and down, she had changed since last year. Her robes hung a little bit more snug then it had from last year. He saw at her collar was a badge with two brooms covering a raven. Amber was the captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. From the caption badge, Tom saw that she had another one, it was the Head Girl badge. He wondered why he hadn't thought that she wouldn't have gotten the Head Girl position. Amber was the most smartest person besides himself in their grade, and was the most popular girl in school. She was very nice to everyone, and all the guys had fallen for her. Her black hair shown in the light, her gray eyes had a glint of excitement. Every guy that he knew had a crush on her. Something about her made the guys crazy for her, everyone but him.

She looked at Tom, she looked him up and down, she smiled at him.

"I knew that you would have gotten the position for Head Boy." She said.

"I was very shocked that I got the position." He said.

She smirked, "Oh very funny Tom, everyone knew that you were going to get the position, even you knew." Amber said, she took a seat next to him.

"Well then I will be honest, I wasn't surprise then." He said, he turned to look at her. He noticed that she had gotten a little bit tan over the summer.

"So did you have a good summer?" She asked.

"Not bad," that was a down right lie, he thought, " So how was yours." He asked.

"It was great, I went to America this summer." She said.

"How was that?" He asked.

"Pretty interesting, I went to a lot of cool places." She said.

Tom was about to ask her where she went, when there was a knock at the door. Amber stood up and opened the door, about twenty people came in, six from each house. The new fifth year prefects were the first to come in, and then the sixth years, and last were the seventh years . He looked at the new prefects in his house, he recognized three or four people who were already his Death Eaters. Some of them smiled at him, Tom just nodded. Once everyone was seated and quite, everyone turned to Tom and Amber.

Amber cleared her throat, "Welcome everyone, I hope that you all had a good summer." Some people said yes, others nodded. "Well, I hope you did, now we are here to talk to you about your duties, passwords, and other things."

"First we will talk about your duties." Tom said from the window, cutting Amber off from what she was about to say. She looked at him, she raised her eyebrow. He just ignored her.

"Now for the new prefects you will be the ones who will escort the first years to their common rooms, and teach them the new password. The fifth years will be showing the first years to their rooms, the rest of you will be patrolling the corridors. You will give out detentions to whoever is caught disobeying the rules. For now, we want you just to patrol the hallway every once in awhile. You are to give out punishment to whoever is breaking the rules." Tom said this, he looked around the room, no one spoke.

After a minute, Amber broke the silence, "Thank you Tom, now, we will be having a meeting at the end of this week to talk about rules, detentions, schedules, and upcoming events. Now for the new passwords."

It was mid afternoon, when the meeting was over. Tom sat down by the window, it was very tiring meeting for him. Amber had just said good bye to the last prefect, when she sat down across from him.

"Well I thought that went well." She said, she was digging in her pockets for something.

"It was all right. We defiantly got a lot of things covered." He said.

Amber nodded, finally she pulled her hands from her pocket. She open her hand to reveal coins, she counted her money to see if she had enough.

"So what are you going to do now Tom? Are you going to visit your friends, or you going to patrol the hallway?" She asked him.

"I think that I will do both, how about you? My guess is that you are going to go and sit with your friends." He said.

"No you are wrong, I'm going to go and get something to eat, and _then_, I will go and sit with my friends." She said in a smug voice. She got from the seat and walk to the door. She turned and waved to him as she walked away.

Tom just sat there, looking outside. The scenery had changed now, all that he could see now were trees. He sat there thinking about today. There was a knock at the door, he looked up. Standing in the doorway was Abraxas Malfoy. Abraxas had blonde hair that was slicked back, his eyes were a dull blue. Tom didn't really like Abraxas, but he knew that he had to have him on his side. His family was very wealthy and had power.

"Hello there Tom, had a nice summer?" Abraxas asked.

"You know how my summer was Abraxas." He said turning back to the window.

"Sorry Tom, I forgot that you had to go back that filthy place." Abraxas said. Tom rolled his eyes, forgot my ass he thought.

"Anyway, I saw that Mudblood coming out of here, sucks for you that she is the Head Girl. I heard that you have to share a common room with her." Abraxas said, he fell into the seat opposite of him.

"I know, but I wasn't that surprised that she had got the position. Besides, I rather share a common room with her instead of Hufflepuff or a Gryffindor." He replied.

"Yea I guess you are right, but she is a Mudblood though." Abraxas said.

"I know, but I would still rather be with her then Victoria Quentin" Tom said, he shivered at saying her name.

"Come on, she isn't that bad, especially if you need some loven." Abraxas said winking.

"Are you kidding me? Last year I went to bed, and the next morning I found her in bed with me, trying to snuggle." He said looking at Malfoy, his voice becoming angry.

"Oh yea, I forgot that she had done that." Abraxas said, his voice amused.

"I never will, besides, I don't want to share a common room with anyone who has a crush on me. That is sort of why I'm glad that Amber is Head Girl." Tom said, he turned away from Abraxas.

"But she is still a Mudblood." He said in an after thought.

"Yea I know Abraxas, you've told me three times, now shut up." He snapped.

They spent the next three hours talking about the new school year, when the first meeting of the Death Eaters was going to be held. Some of Toms other followers even showed up. Since he was Head Boy he also had to patrol the hallway every once and awhile. Finally the train started to slow down, and he couldn't be happier. The train came to a stop, Tom stood up and started for the door, Abraxas behind him. He climbed the steps down from the train. As he walked out onto the platform, he looked into the distance. There was the majestic castle, it glowed from the lights inside of the castle. Tom smiled for the first time all summer, he was home.

Author's Note: So there was chapter 1! I hope you liked it, so please tell me what you think about it! Please review!


	2. The New Common Room

Author's Note: Ok so here is chapter 2! Thank you to this reviewer, **b4ll3r1n4** (I hope it to be promising to.) A big thanks to **TRfan190** for being my first reviewer. Also I'm not really going off of the 6th book, but I will use some of the info from there. Anyway here is chapter 2, enjoy!

**Behind the Mask**

**Chapter 2: The New Common Room **

Tom walked over to the carriages, some of them were already full and heading up to the castle. As he neared the carriages, he noticed that the usually empty shafts, were now being occupied. A black skeleton horse was now tied up to the carriage. Tom grinned at the sight of this, Thestrals. He chuckled to himself as he remembered the one good thing about this summer, he had meet his family.

"What is it Tom? Why aren't you getting in?" Abraxas asked, coming up besides him.

"Nothing, just thinking about this summer." He said, he took one last glance at the Thestral before he climbed into the carriage.

They rode up to the castle in silence, nobody seemed as if they wanted to talk. Tom started out the window, watching the wheels turn. They had reached the castle now, the carriage came to a halt in front of the stone steps. Tom was the first to climb out, he looked at the majestic castle. It was the same as he had remembered it, beautiful and grand. Abraxas came out and started to walk up the stairs, pushing aside some second years as he went.

"Move you squibs." Abraxas snarled.

Tom was behind Abraxas, he grabbed his robe. " Don't do that in front of me." He hissed.

"Why not? You never stopped me before." Abraxas said, he looked at him confused.

"That is because I wasn't Head Boy before, and because a teacher could have seen you. And don't question me, Abraxas." He snarled, he let go of Abraxas's robe.

"Alright, I'm sorry, I won't do it again in front of you if there could be a teacher." Abraxas said, rubbing where he had grabbed him.

"Good." He said glaring at him, and started to climb the stairs again.

The castle felt warm when he had reached the entrance hall, he could smell the food that was coming from the Great Hall. The smell made his mouth water, he hadn't eaten all day. He entered the Great Hall, he walked over to the Slytherin table. He sat down in the middle, Abraxas took the seat next to him. Tom looked down at the golden plates, wishing they were full of food.

"God I wish the first years would hurry up and get here." Abraxas said, looking at the door.

"Calm down Abraxas, they will get here, besides, we must wait to see who will join our house." Tom said.

"So true, we will see who will join our group." Abraxas said smiling.

Tom just nodded, he looked around the Great Hall. The house tables were starting to fill up as the students started to come in. He turned to looked up at the Head Table. Professor Dippit was sitting in the middle of the table, talking to Professor Slughorn. He eyes traveled from Slughorn down the table, resting on his least favorite teacher. Professor Dumbledore. Hatred rose in his chest, just looking at Dumbledore made him angry. He hated everything about him, his calm face, the twinkle in his eyes, his kindness. Even when Dumbledore came to him at the orphanage, he had hated him.

He saw that Dumbledore was talking to the Herbology teacher, Professor Alejandra. He turned from Alejandra and looked at him. Tom looked away quickly, he didn't want Dumbledore to see that he was looking at him. Even though he had looked away, Tom felt his eyes on him, watching him. He turned around to see if he was still staring at him, he wasn't, he was talking to Alejandra again.

"Finally here they come." Abraxas said.

He looked at the doors, sure enough the new first years had arrived. Some of them looked scared as they walked up to the Head table, others amazed or bored. They reached the Head Table, they all lined up in front. The Charms teacher, Professor Helten, came up to them carrying a stool and a battered old hat. He placed the stool in front, so that everyone could see it. The hall fell silent, everyone had their eyes on the hat. Suddenly the hat burst out into a song.

_Oh you may not think that I am pretty, but I am quite witty._

_I can find the place that you belong, it is quite great!_

_Long ago, four great people, hatched a plan, to build_

_a school where young witches and wizards could learn_

_magic. And so they did, they worked hard to make this dream _

_Come true. Young and old came to learn, each chosen by their skills._

_There was Hufflepuff, kind, and honest,_

_Cunning Ravenclaw, smarter then the rest, they will put you to the test._

_Brave Gryffindor, bold and noble of heart._

_Or maybe power hungry Slytherin, where you will find your real friends._

_So what were they to do, when they were gone and dead?_

_It was Godric Gryffindor who found a solution._

_He whipped me off his head, and put some brains in me_

_And here I am, ready for the sorting._

_But be warned, for my tale is not yet over._

_Inside these wall, if we don't unit together then we will fall._

_We are stronger when we are together, weaker when not._

_Evil will arise, and nobody will hear the cries._

_Trust is wise, friendship is true, and love concurs over evil._

_I have told you once, I have told you twice, now let the sorting _

_Begin!_

The hall broke into applause, the hat bowed to all the tables before going still. Every looked around at each other, all thinking the same thing.

"Has the hat ever given warnings before?" Abraxas asked as he was clapping.

"I think it has given warnings in the past when it thinks that the school is in trouble." Tom replied.

"How would it know if the school was in danger if it is a hat?"

"I don't know, it lives up in Professor Dippit's room, so maybe it gets its information from there." Tom said.

"But the school isn't in trouble, is it?" Abraxas asked, looking at Tom.

"Of course not you idiot, if the school was in trouble, they wouldn't have us come here now would they." Tom snapped.

Abraxas just nodded his head and looked at the front. The hall had gone silent again, waiting for the first years to be sorted.

Professor Helten cleared his throat, "Now when I call your names, you will come and sit on the stool and place the sorting hat on your head. Then, when it calls the name of the houses, you will go and sit at that table. Adkein, David!"

A boy walked up to the stool shaking. He placed the hat over his head, it fell down past his ears. The hat just sat there for a minute, then it opened its brim.

"Hufflepuff!"

The table on the far right broke out into applause. David ripped the hat from his head and with shaky legs, went down to sit at the Hufflepuff table.

"Abendroth, Elizabeth."

"Gryffindor!"

"Ackerman, Katie."

"Ravenclaw!" The middle table burst into applause. Tom saw Amber welcome Katie as she came to sit by her.

They were now in the B's and nobody had yet been put into Slytherin.

"Alan, Black."

"Slytherin!" The table broke into applause, Alan Black walked over to the table with a smug look. He sat down at the table next to his older brother William.

"Blinn, Clare." And the list went on.

Finally they were done with the sorting, and Slytherin had gained nine new students. Professor Helten picked up the stool and carried it out. Professor Dippit stood up.

"Welcome everyone to another school year at Hogwarts!" He said in a cheerful voice.

Tom watched Dippit talk, but he didn't really pay attention to what he was saying. He knew what all the rules were, so why did he need to hear them again? So he started to daydream. After awhile people around him were moving, he looked to see that the food had finally appeared.

"Finally, I'm starving." Abraxas said, he started to grab food and pilling it onto his plate.

Tom looked at Abraxas as he started to stuff his face with food, totally disgusting. He shook his head, he grabbed a bake potato.

The hall was filled with chattering, everyone telling each other about their summer. Tom was half listening to what the people around him were saying, these things didn't really interest him. He wonder how could anyone enjoy telling other people what they had done, or actually listening to them. If some asked him to listen to what they had done this summer, he would have told them to go jump in the lake.

Warren Nott was sitting right beside him, he turned towards Tom. "So Tom, how are you? I didn't get to see you this summer." He said.

"I am just peachy, and I didn't get to see this summer because I didn't want to." Tom said, he place a fork full of food in his mouth.

Nott laughed, not taking him seriously. "Very funny Tom, so I heard that you got the Head Boy position, congratulations."

"Thanks." He mumbled.

"I also heard that you get to share a common room with Lynwood." Nott said, raising his eyebrow.

"Yea, I am." Tom said frowning, he knew where this conversation was going.

"Your pretty lucky, she is very good looking." Nott said, smiling at him.

"I guess she is, but nothing is going to happen, she's in Ravenclaw for christ sakes." Tom said, as he reached for a tart.

"Still, that never stopped you before." Nott said, also grabbing a tart.

Tom glared at Nott, which made him recoil. "Just because I had a little fun with some of the other houses doesn't mean that I am going to get close to this one." He said, still glaring at him.

"Come on Tom, how could you not want to at least get a little close to her?" Nott asked.

"Because she is the Head Girl, and I don't want to share a room with someone that I would like. Now drop the subject." Tom said angrily.

"Fine, but you may like her sooner or later." Nott said, he turned away to talk to someone else.

Tom's frown deepened, why would Nott say that he would like her? Maybe because they would be spending a lot of time together? He shuddered at the thought of being with someone, it wasn't like him.

Finally the last tart had disappeared and everyone was getting up to leave. Tom stood up from the bench and started to walk out of the Great Hall, he was at the door, when he was stopped by someone calling his name.

"Mr. Riddle." He turned around to find Slughorn behind him.

"Yes Professor?" He asked politely.

"Well first of all I want to congratulate you on making Head Boy."Slughorn smiled.

"Thank you Professor." Tom said.

"Now, the second thing is about your new common room." Slughorn said, still smiling at him, "Now, it will be on the fifth floor, behind the painting of a ocean, the password is 'Meldadish'. Also, you will have a private room, which also needs a password, but you get to make it up."

"Thank you Professor, for telling me this."Tom said.

"Your welcome my boy, oh and one last thing, you will be sharing the common room with Miss. Lynwood. Well good night Tom." Slughorn said.

"Good night Professor." Tom said, he turned and walked out of the hall.

The hall was crowded by all of the students heading up to their common rooms. He even noticed some of the prefects leading the first years to their new rooms. He had reached the marble staircase, and he started to climb the stairs to the fifth floor.

It had taken him two staircases, one hidden passageway for him to reach the fifth floor. He stood in front of the painting, it was a sunset over the ocean. The refection of the sun made the water a light pink and blues.

"Meldadish." He said.

The painting swung forward, revealing a hole for him to climb through, Tom climbed through the portrait hole. When he reached the other side, he stood in amazed at the room. It was decorated in a cozy style like the other common rooms, it had tree couches, two chairs, a fireplace, a bookshelf, and other things. He noticed that the colors were of Slytherin and of Ravenclaw, and that there were two banners hanging up of a snake and of a raven. The torches on the wall cast a faint shadow and glow on everything.

Tom went over to the fireplace to warm himself up, for some reason he was cold, even though he knew the room was hot. He studied the pictures that were up on the mantel. It was of the previous Head Boy and Girl from the past five years. Each picture had a boy and a girl waving at him, each smiling at their victory of being Head Boy and Girl. As he was looking at this, he heard the portrait hole open, he turned around to see Amber climb in. She stopped in the middle of the room to look around, finally her eyes rested on him.

"Hi Tom, lovely place, isn't it?" She asked.

"I guess so." He said lazily.

She nodded, she crossed the room and sat in a black squishy chair, she swung her feet over the armrest. "I know that you may not care, but I call this chair." She said.

"That is fine with me." Tom said, he turned his back to her, and went over the bookshelf. He ran his fingers along the spines of the books, reading their names.

"Any good books?" She asked.

"Not really." He replied.

Amber got up from the chair and came to stand by him, she looked at the books. She was so close to him, that he could smell her perfume, vanilla mixed with rose. He watched as her eyes flew across the titles, her eyes grew into excitement as she read the names.

She turned towards him, "I can't believe that you don't think these books aren't good. These are all classics and advance magic, how could you not like them?" She asked.

Tom looked at her, "They aren't my type of books." He said, he went over to one of the couches and sat down.

"Right I forgot, you're only into the Restricted Section, aren't you Tom." She said, turning back to the books.

"No, not always, I don't always read the books from the Restricted Section." He mumbled.

"Right, you only go for the Dark Arts books." She said.

"And how would you know that?" Tom asked, they were starting getting into deep waters here, he thought.

"Because everyone knows that you are fascinated by it, also, you are always caring those types of books with you." She said, turning towards him.

"Just because I carry some of those books, doesn't mean that I like the Dark Arts." Tom snapped.

"All right Tom, calm down. Nobody cares that you are into the Dark Arts. Everyone has at least one subject that they are really into, for me it's Quidditch, for you, it's the Dark Arts." She said, she then gave a huge yawn. "Well I think that I am going to bed, night."

"Night." He said.

She walked past him and went to one of the staircases. He sat there, thinking about what she had said. She knew nothing about how he was into the Dark Arts, and even if she did, she wouldn't understand.

He had been fascinated by the Dark Arts ever since his third year, he wanted to know everything about it. He had read his class books over and over again, until he had them memorized, but that wasn't enough for him. He started to crave more advance magic, to find out more. Once he was allowed to go into the Restricted Section, no one could get him out. He had found many books in there, from curses to the secrets of life.

The clock on the wall made a dinging sound, Tom looked up to see that it was ten o'clock. He stretched and got up from the couch, he should probably get to bed, he had classes tomorrow. He went over to the staircase and started to climb the stairs. He had reached the top, where he was met by a wooden door. Tom grabbed the handle and pushed, the door didn't open. He wondered why the door didn't open, oh right, Slughorn said that I could make up a password. It didn't take him a long time to figure out what his password was.

"Voldemort." The door swung forward.

Tom walked inside the room. There was a queen size bed in the middle of the room, the covers were a dark shade of green, and the pillows were a silver. There were banners of Slytherin all over the room, it seemed that the room had a theme of snakes. There was a black desk in the corner, its legs were in the shape of a snake. He even noticed that the bed was in a shape of a snake. He walked over to the bed and sat down, it was very comfortable. He pulled his shirt off, and grabbed a pair of pajama paints. He changed into the pajamas and crossed the room to the bathroom. He looked inside of the bathroom, it was a very big one. Everything was made of marble, the sink, tub, and the shower. He went over to the sink to brush his teeth. As he walked over there, he passed by a mirror. Tom stopped when he saw his reflection. His dark hair stood out the most, his pale skin was a little darker then last year. He noticed that he had gotten a six pack, and that his baby fat was now gone, and replaced with muscles. He wondered when his body had started to do this to him, and why he hadn't noticed before. But then again, he couldn't remember when the last time he had looked in the mirror. He sighed, he had known that he had grown, but not this much. He shrugged his shoulders and went and brushed his teeth.

He fell into the bed, and pulled the sheets up to his chest. He lay there for some time, waiting for sleep to overcome him. He wondered what tomorrow was going to be like, when he started to drift off, until he fell asleep.

Author's note: Ok, so there was chapter 2! I hope you liked it! Now if you want to read more, Review! It would make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Also, I know that Ravenclaw symbol is an eagle, but I am putting it as a raven. You know because it is _Raven_claw, not _Eagle_claw. If you don't like it, well that is your opinion.


	3. Potions Class

Author's Note: Ok so here is chapter 3! Thank you to these reviewers for reviewing! **Hawilianocean,** and **TRfan190**. Anyway here is chapter 3, enjoy!

**Behind the Mask**

**Chapter 3: Potions Class**

Tom woke from his slumber, the bright sunlight was shining through his window. He placed his hand over his eyes, shielding them from the brightness, he sat up in the bed. He rubbed his eyes and looked at his clock. It read six o'clock, perfect. He yawned and got up. He crossed to his bathroom, and went to the shower. He turned the nobs all the way to hot, water squirted out of the faucet. He touched the water that was coming out, it was so hot that it stung his fingers. He climbed into the shower, the hot water burned as it touched his bare skin. He let the water wash over him for a little bit let his body go numb. Finally after awhile the water had become comfortable, he grabbed the soap and started to scrub his arms.

Twenty minutes later, he turned the faucet off, and climbed out. He grabbed a towel that was hanging near by and wrapped it around himself. He went to back into his room to change into his school robes. He then spent the next few minutes getting ready for the day.

Once he had all of his stuff, he went down into the common room. There was a weak fire going in the fire place, but besides that, the room was empty. He crossed the room and sat down on the couch. Breakfast wouldn't be starting for another half an hour. He sat there, gazing off into space, every once and awhile he would get up and walk around the room. Finally the clocks face read that it was seven, Tom got up and walked out of the portrait hole.

Ten minutes later he was sitting down at the table eating a piece of toast when Abraxas walked up to him and sat down.

"Morning Tom." He said, he reached over and grabbed a spoonful of eggs.

"Morning." Tom mumbled.

"Sleep well." Abraxas asked, giving him a smug look.

"Fine, why do you ask?" Tom asked, giving Malfoy a questioning look.

"Nothing, just wondering." Abraxas said with a shrug, he turned away smiling.

Tom just decided to ignore Malfoy and continued eating his toast. After awhile, Professor Slughorn was coming around the table giving the students their new schedules. He had now reached where Tom and Abraxas was sitting, he gave them each a smile.

"Morning boys, ready for the new school year?" He asked.

"I guess so." They replied.

"Well that is good, now, lets start with you, shall we Mr. Malfoy?" Slughorn said, he pulled out a roll of parchment and started to read it. "It says here that you passed my final exam so you may come into my advance class. It also say here that you passed Herbology, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Oh but, you didn't pass Transfiguration, You got a P, and you know that Professor Dumbledore only allows E or O. I am sorry, you won't be able to get into that class. It says here that you also didn't pass some of your other classes. Anyway, what will you be doing this year?"

"I guess Potions, Charms, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Astronomy." Malfoy mumbled.

"Right." Slughorn pulled out a piece of parchment and tapped it with his wand. He handed the paper to Malfoy, with his new schedule. Slughorn turned towards Tom.

"Now here is a good student, it says here that you passed all of your exams with an O for everyone of them. So what classes would you like to take?" He asked, beaming at Tom.

"I would like to take all of the advance classes, Professor." Tom said.

"I should have guessed that you would want to take those classes, well here you go my boy, here is your new schedule." Slughorn handed him a paper with all of his classes.

"Well, I will see you boys later, you are in my first class."Slughorn said, he walked away to the next student.

Tom looked down at his new schedule to see what he had today. Abraxas looked over his shoulder and whistled.

"You have a lot of classes today, and all very hard." Abraxas said.

"Hardly, and besides, I have two breaks today." Tom said, he rolled up the paper and placed it in his bag.

"Still the classes are all very hard, and you are taking every subject besides Muggle Studies." Abraxas said, biting off a piece of bacon.

"To you it is hard, but for me, its only a way to waste my time. And I didn't take Muggles Studies because I want nothing to do with muggles." Tom said.

"Right, the only way we would interact with them if we are torturing them." Abraxas said smiling.

"Very true." Tom looked up from his plate, "Well I think I will go walk around a little bit before class." Tom said getting up.

"Alright then, see you later."Abraxas said, looking back at his food.

Tom got up and left the Great Hall. He still had about fifteen minutes till he had to be down in the dungeons. He decided that he would go outside for awhile. It was a nice warm autumn day, a soft breeze played across his face. He walked over to one of the benches and sat down. He laid his head back against the stone wall, watching the people who weren't at breakfast. Some of them were walking down to the lake, while others stood around talking. He spotted Amber and her group of friends a few feet away from him. She was surrounded by a lot of guys, mostly the Quidditch players from the other houses. He watched them for a little while, since he had nothing else to look at. He saw them talking and laughing, he also saw that some of the guys were flirting with Amber. He smirked, he could see that she wasn't really paying attention to them, funny, she would have made a great Slytherin.

He looked down at his watch and saw that he had only eight minutes to get to his first class. He stood up and left the court yard and headed to the dungeons.

He was the first one there, he stood outside of the door, waiting for other people to show up. Slowly, other people where starting to come. Abraxas came down the stairs with Warren and some other Slytherins. He cringed, Victoria Quentin was with them. Victoria was a blonde with little brains, her world only revalued around guys and getting only what she wanted. She was always hanging on him and trying to flirt with him. To his dismay she had spotted him, smiling she bounced over to him.

"Hi Tom, had a nice summer?"She purred. She came right up to him, placed her hands on his shoulder.

"No."Tom replied, he moved so that she wouldn't be touching him.

"Why not? Was it because you hadn't seen me?" She said, coming up to him again, this time laying her head on his shoulder, battering her eye slashes at him.

"Actually that was the best part of my summer, not seeing you."He snapped, he pushed her away.

"But Tom," She pouted, "I missed you, you can't tell me that you hadn't missed me."

"No as a matter of fact, I didn't miss you, now leave me alone." He said, he looked over to see that some of the guys were snickering.

He gave them all a dirty look, they all stopped once they saw this look. He was wonder when they would be able to get into the class room where he could leave Victoria's clutches, when Slughorn opened up his door.

"Alright everyone, come inside and pick a table." Slughorn said, holding the door open for them.

Tom was the first to go in, leaving Victoria behind. He went right up to the front table and placed his bag down. Malfoy, Nott, and a boy named Jacob Flint sat down by him. Slughorn crossed the room and went to the front of the room.

"Welcome everyone to Advance Potions. Now, first things first. I will be giving you partners." There was a moaning from this comment. Tom sighed, his partner would only slow him down.

Slughorn smiled, "Now come on class, it should be fun. I'm only giving you a partner for certain potions, for today, you will need one. Now I will call you and your partners name, you will go and sit by them." He pulled out a roll of parchment.

"Nott and Malfoy." Warren and Abraxas smiled at each other, Warren moved over to sit by Abraxas.

"Quentin and Vindent." Victoria made a face, she was partnered up with a Gryffindor.

"Flint and Avery, Valentine and Weasley, Zabini and Heart, Grune and Noel, Riddle and Lynwood..."

Tom looked up at Slughorn with a blank face. Of corse he wanted to pair them up. He turned back to look at Amber, she was rolling her eyes. She got up and moved up to where Tom was. She took a seat next to him, she turned to look at him and gave him a smile. He just nodded.

Slughorn had finished telling everyone who there partners was, he then waiting for them to get to their new table. Once the room got quite again, he went behind his desk.

"Well now that we have our partners, let us begin." He reached down and pulled a cauldron up. It was a deep purple that was giving off a minty oder. "Now can anyone tell me what this is?"

Tom's hand shot up in the air, but his wasn't the only one, Amber's hand was up too.

"Ah, our two brightest students, not surprised, well what is the answer, Mr. Riddle."

"The potion you have there is called the Hetventen, it is the strongest strengthening potion. It gives off a minty scent because the mint plant is the most important ingredient in the potion. The color is a dark purple because of the plants naitenly and shilnm." Tom said, putting his hand down.

"Very good, ten points to Slytherin, and Tom is correct, this is the Hetventen. Now can anyone tell me who invented it and where we would use it?" Slughorn asked.

Yet again, Tom's and Amber's hand went up. "Miss. Lynwood, what is the answer."

She placed her hand down, "Yetven Benten created the Hetventen, and we use this potion when we have little strength. It is found in every hospital and is found in the Hospital Wing."

"Very good, ten points to Ravenclaw. As you all guessed, we are going to create the Hetventen. You will find what you need in the cabinet," He flicked his wand, the cabinet doors opened, " And you will find the instructions on page 75 in your books, you may begin."

Tom got up from the table and went over to the cabinet, he already knew what he needed. He came back to the table and placed all of the ingredients on the table and started to heat his cauldron. Amber had just finished looking up what she needed and went over to the cabinet. When she came back, she found Tom already putting ingredients into his potion.

"You don't waste a minute, do you Tom?" She said sarcastically.

Tom looked up at her, giving her a questioning look, "Are you seriously asking me this?"

"I was just joking, I guess you aren't really into jokes, are you?" She said, sitting down besides him. She grabbed her cauldron and lit it.

"When it comes to class work, I have no humor." Tom said, turning back to his cauldron.

They sat in silence for awhile, both concentrating on their work. Tom had just started cutting up his ginger roots, making each cut perfect and even. He dumped them into his cauldron and stirred it counterclockwise.

"You know that the book says that you are suppose to turn it clockwise, and you aren't suppose to add the ginger roots until after the shilnm." She said frowning.

"Well I don't need the book, besides this works better."Tom said still stirring his potion.

"I can see that, you don't even have your book open." She said as she put in a mint leaf.

Tom looked up at her, his face scrunched up in confusion, no body had ever criticized him on his work, let alone correct him. "Listen, I don't care what the book says, I don't care what you say. Just stay out of this and we will get along just fine." Tom snapped.

She looked up from her potion and glared at him, for once, Tom was taken back, she hadn't recoiled like the others had. "Well then I'm sorry Tom, I will not bother you again, but you know, this is a team project. Sooner or later you will need my help, whether you like it or not."

"I don't need any ones help, I do things alone. As for the partner thing, in here we just need to stay out of each others way." He said not looking at her.

"Fine, we will work alone in here." She said, she turned back to her cauldron and started to work again.

For the rest of the time they did not talk to each other, an hour and a half later, Toms potion was a deep purple and a strong minty scent. Next to him, Ambers potion was a dark purple and had a not a strong smell as his. Slughorn was coming around checking every ones potion.

"Not a dark enough purple, Flint and Avery. To runny Nott and Malfoy. Very good potion Vindent, Quentin make it better next time. Grune and Noel very good potion, you just need to add a little more naitenly next time. Ah, and my two brightest students, what do you have for me?" He came up to their table and looked down into each of their cauldrons.

"Ah, excellent, both very good potions, Outstanding for the both of you. Now everyone clean up and wait for the bell to ring."

Every moved to clean up their potion, five minutes later the bell rang. Tom picked up his bag and was the first out the door. He was climbing the stairs when Malfoy and Nott caught up with him.

"Interesting class today, don't you think?" Abraxas asked.

"Not really, I don't really like having a partner." Tom said.

"I know, why couldn't he have put me with you, or with Lynwood. I would be actually passing that class for once." Warren said.

"I you actually think that Lynwood would let you make her do all the work, then you are mistaken. She would never let you do that. I would make you do nothing, because I know you would just mess it up and it would reflect poorly on me." Tom said, they had reached the top of the stairs and were heading to their next class.

"Your right, she would never do the work by herself, oh well." Warren sighed.

"So how was it working with a Mudblood?" Abraxas asked.

"Annoying, she corrected me on my work." Tom said he started to climb the marble stair case.

"She corrected you? She actually corrected you? The most brilliant potion maker was corrected?"Abraxas said, his voice was amazed.

"Yes she corrected me." Tom snapped.

"That dirty little Mudblood. I hope you put her in her place, telling you what to do."Abraxas said angrily.

"I did, no one is going to correct me, like there is anything to correct."Tom said, stepping off of the last step.

"So right, there is nothing to correct about your work, you are a genius." Warren said.

"He is right, there is nothing to correct about you, you are a genius." Abraxas said.

"Yea, I know that."Tom said.

They had reached the Charms class room. It seemed that Professor Helten wasn't ready yet for his next class. Some of the students were waiting outside the room, waiting for him to open the door. The walked over to the corner and waited for Helten to come out. As the time passed, more students came, each branching off into their own groups. More Slytherins came to join their group, and to Toms relief, Victoria seemed not to be taking Charms.

Tom looked down at his watch, it was five minutes till class would be starting. He looked up and saw a big group come walking up to the door. To Toms dismay, Amber was in that group, it seemed as if she was taking the same classes as he was, great. The group stopped right in front of the door, waiting for the class to begin. Tom caught Ambers eye, but she looked away. It seemed that she was mad at him, he smirked. Finally the door opened, and Tom went inside. He took a seat in the middle of the class room. He leaned back in his chair, tonight he had Prefects duty with Amber. His smirk grew wider, tonight should be interesting.

Author's Note: Ok so there was chapter 3! I hope you like it! So next chapter Tom and Amber will go on duty together, and it won't be a pleasant one. So if you like my story, Review! So please review.


	4. Midnight Patrol

Author's Note: Ok so here is chapter 4! A big thanks to these reviewers for reviewing! **TRfan190, Hawilianocean, SxC sLyTHErIn LuVa**( I got the name Abraxas from the 6th book, he is Draco's grandfather. So in the last chapter you saw Tom and Amber get into a fight, sort of. This is in the same day and you will get to see them patrol the corridors. Anyway here is chapter 4, enjoy!

**Behind the Mask**

**Chapter 4: Midnight Patrol or**

It was after dinner, and Tom was heading to the Heads common room. He had prefects duty tonight and he wanted to be alone till then. Students passed him as he walked by. He ignored them as if they weren't there. He hated being surrounded by people, he rather be isolated from them.

"Meldadish" He said, the portrait hole swung forward. he climbed threw the hole.

He crossed the room leading to the staircase. He climbed the stairs to his room. Tom shut the door behind him and went to his desk. He sat down and pulled out his homework and started to work on it. He wrote about a page of an essay, when he stopped. He heard voices down the stairs. He ignored them, it must be that mudblood and her friends, Tom thought. He finished his homework, he laid his quill down and stretched. He reached down and pulled out a heavy book and rolls of parchment.

He unrolled the first parchment and looked at it. It was a list of all the students that had attended Hogwarts for the past fifty years. His eyes scanned down the parchment, taking in every name. He came to the middle of the page and he stopped. There was her name, his mothers name. He glared at her name, hating her. He hated his mother for abandoning him as a baby, for not wanting to live for him. Tom hated his whole family, no not family, the deserters. He didn't have a family, he only had his followers and the Dark Arts.

The more he looked at the parchment the more he wanted to tare it up and throw it away. It was very tempting, but he just laid it on his desk. He leaned back in his chair, thinking. He had spent the first three years here at Hogwarts to find out about his father. He poured over books to find out about him, but he found nothing. Finally in his fourth year, he realized that his father was a muggle, and had never stepped foot into Hogwarts. After he realized this, he never wanted anything to do with his father.

Coming to realize that his father wasn't a wizard, he looked at his mother. He found her weak and disappointing. He saw her as a poor excuse of a witch for not save herself when she was dying. But then, he wonder why she hadn't save herself for him. Why couldn't she survive to care for her only son? The answer always came back to weakness. Her weakness was his filthy muggle father, her love for him destroyed her. It made her weak, thinking that life was not living without him.

Love, to him it was just a waste of emotion. It was a weakness, and he hated weakness. Love made people do strange things, chance how they are, losing all of a persons sanity. It made no sense that a person would give up everything for love, that everyone was looking for it. Tom hated love.

After he realized that his father was a muggle, he started to look on his mother side of the family. He had only one way to find it, his middle name, Marvolo. Tom had found his grandfathers name on the list and traced that name all the way back to his very great grandfather. He found that he was the late grand son of Salazar Slytherin. He also learned that Salazar had made a secret chamber, holding a terrible beast within. He wanted to learn more about the chamber and what lay with in, and he did. It took him three years to find out everything, and that it was his destiny, that he should follow in his grandfathers footsteps. Tom smirked at this thought, this was the only good thing about family, inheritance.

The clock on his was struck nine o'clock. Tom looked over at the clock frowning, it was time for him to go on patrol for his prefects duties, great.

They were walking down the corridors, not talking to each other. They had been on duty for an hour and they hadn't spoken. He caught her glancing over at him a few times, but pretended not to notice. They walked past a suit of armor, when Amber finally spoke to him.

"I am sorry about today in potions class." She said, her voice hard as if she really didn't want to apologies.

Tom kept a straight face, "Just stay out of the way and we won't have a problem."

Amber stop walking, giving him a dirty look, "What not even that is ok? That we could work things out?"

He stopped and looked at her, "You aren't serious." He asked.

She rolled her eyes, "Of course I am serious, we need to be ok with this if we are to be partners. And personally I don't like how you are treating me."

He raised his eyebrow, he could not believe that they were having this conversation, "And what is wrong how I am treating you? I treat everybody this way. You should know that I prefer to work alone, that way nobody gets in my way. And I personally don't like it when people try to correct me when I know what I am doing."

She stared at him, her gray eyes were questioning, "Why? Do you think if anyone questions you that you could be wrong? Do you snap at someone when they tell you something different, because you don't want to see if you are wrong?"

"Please, I am never wrong. I snap at people because they tell me that I am wrong, but I am not." He snapped.

"So you never been wrong in your inter life?" She asked, tilting her head.

"No." Tom said, he turned and started to walk again.

"I highly doubt that." She said, also starting to walk, "Everyone has been wrong at least once in their life."

"I have never been wrong." She was starting to annoy him.

"Sure." She said, glancing at a painting.

"I have never been wrong." Tom said, his voice rising. She was making him really angry.

She looked at him, "Fine, you have never been wrong, happy?"

"No." He turned his head where he wasn't looking at her.

She chuckled, "Nothing is good enough for you, isn't it?"

"Nothing is good." He said, looking ahead of him.

She frowned, "Why is nothing good?"

Tom thought about it for a moment, "Because it just is."

Her next words were slow, "I see." She turning away.

They walked in silence for awhile, both lost in their own thoughts. They walked down the corridor, the torches were lit. Tom glanced over at Amber. Her face was glowing from the torches, he could see the flames dancing in her eyes. To him this gave her a look of an eery beauty. Tom shook this thought from his head, it wasn't right.

"So what are we to do now? Just ignore each other in class?" She asked after awhile.

"That is fine with me." He said, still not looking at her.

They went silence again, then she said something, "Why do you prefer to work alone?"

"Because then no one can bother me. So that I get things done my way," He said, then he asked, "Why do you prefer to work with someone?"

"Because it gives you someone to talk to. It gives you a chance to be with someone, to not have to worry as much." She said.

"It is better to be alone." He said in an after thought.

She looked at him, he looked at her, "Sometimes it isn't better to be alone. You will leave a lonely and bitter life if you do."

He frowned, "But sometimes it is, you don't have to depend on anyone but yourself."

She shrugged her shoulders, "Not always."

They spent the rest of the time in silence, only speaking every once and awhile. Finally after two hours they headed back to their common room. Once they were inside, Amber bid him good night and headed up to her room. Tom went up to his room and shut the door behind him. He wasn't tired at all so he decided that he would read a little bit. He went over to his desk, where the big book lay. He sat down in his chair and open the book. It was _A Hogwarts, a History,_ Tom flipped threw the pages, until he came to Salazar Slytherin. He looked down at the information about him. He had read this book many times, trying to figure out clues to the Chamber of Secrets. He had spent years trying to find out information, and he had found out everything, but he missed only one thing, the entrance.

Tom knew what lay inside of the chamber and how to control it. He knew what the basilisk powers were and its weakness. He knew everything, but how to enter. He read through the book, trying to find some clue about how to find the entrance, but found nothing. He slammed the book shut, angry at not finding anything. He remembered that he had looked around the school, trying to find a clue or something that would lead him to the chamber. He never found anything. He thought about all the places that he had been. He had found a few things, but nothing that interested him that much.

Tom got up and walked out of his room. He crossed the common room and went out the portrait hole. He was going to look around a little bit, he took out his wand and lit it. He knew that he wouldn't be in trouble if he was caught out of bed. He was the Head Boy, so that gave him permission to wander the halls at night. He walked around the fifth floor, examining everything. He found nothing. He went down to the fourth floor. An hour later he still hadn't found anything. He then decided to give up for the night and to go to bed. He walked over the stairway. He had one foot on the step, when someone called his name. Tom closed his eyes, his mouth tightened, he turned around.

Dumbledore was standing behind him, his wand lit. The light cast a silvery glow on his face, everything else bathed in darkness.

"A little late to be wandering around the corridors, isn't it Tom?" He asked, his voice calm.

"It is a little late Professor." He replied, also matching Dumbledore's voice.

"And as to why are you out so late?" He asked curiously.

Tom knew this game, he was trying to find out why he was out so late, the real reason. "I got off duty about a hour ago, I wanted to patrol the corridors a little bit longer then Miss. Lynwood." He said, his face blank.

Dumbledore stared at him as if he was reading him. Tom swallowed, he knew Dumbledore didn't believe him. Dumbledore nodded his head, but still started at him. He hated that he was staring at him, he didn't like Dumbledore's eyes. It seemed as if they could see right threw him, it made him feel vulnerable.

"All right then Mr. Riddle. I advise you to go back to your common room and get some rest. Good night." Dumbledore said, still staring at him.

Tom nodded his head, "Good night sir." He turned around and walked up the stairs, feeling his eyes watching him.

He laid down in his bed. He started at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to take him, to his nightmares. He had nightmares every night for as long as he could remember. His dreams filled with darkness and shadows. Sometimes he would hear screaming in his dreams followed by a high pitched laughter. Every time he heard this laughter, he would wake up, sweating. Tom shiver at the thought of this, the laugh was just so chilling. He wrapped the blanket around him, he was very cold.

He turned on his side and closed his eyes, waiting for the darkness.

Author's Note: Ok so there was chapter 4! A little foreshadowing, not much, but there is some. Anyway, if you like the chapter, then Review!


	5. Snake in the Bathroom

Author's Note: Ok so here is chapter 5! Thank you to these reviewers for reviewing! **TRfan190, and SxC sLyThErIn LuVa. **Anyway, here is chapter 5, enjoy!

**Behind the Mask**

**Chapter 5: Snake in the Bathroom**

It had been a month now that the school year had started, and Tom still didn't know where the entrance to the chamber was. He had spent every single night looking around for the bloody entrance. But every single night, he found nothing. Tom noticed that ever since the night Dumbledore caught him out of bed, that he had been keeping a close eye on him. He cursed the old man for being so suspicious.

Tom walked out of the charms class room. He walked towards his next and favorite class, Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was his favorite class because it helped him learn what he could as in creatures to do his biding, how to counter the worst spells against him, and because it was a class. Defense Against the Dark Arts was the one of the class that Tom ever really paid attention in.

To Toms dismay though, the teacher was teaching them what he had already known. He sighed in frustration, he hated it when a teacher was teaching something what he had already knew. The one class that was always new to him was Transfiguration. This class was the other only class that he had really liked. He knew that the main reason why he liked it is because Dumbledore taught it. As much as he hated to admit it, he actually like what Dumbledore taught him and what he had to say. He admired Dumbledore for his brilliants, he was Toms roll model, but they both had different ideas about things.

Tom didn't pay attention to what the teacher was saying. Instead he started to take notes of his own. He had spent the whole inter class period writing down complicated spells, meetings, and a map of Hogwarts. He was relieved when the bell rang. Tom stood up from his chair and headed out the door. Tom was half way down the hall when Malfoy came running up to him.

"Interesting lesson today."He said, slowing down to a walk.

"Not really, it was a waste of my time."Tom said cooly.

"Yea, you are right, it was a waste of time."Malfoy said, running his fingers through his hair.

They walked down the marble staircase talking about the Death Eater meeting that they were going to have that night.

"Tom look,"Malfoy said, he nodded, "It's the mudblood."

Tom looked in his direction, Amber was scolding a fifth year, a Hufflepuff with big horned glasses was standing next to Amber crying.

"Which one?"Tom asked.

Malfoy laughed, Tom cringed inward at the sound, "Good one Tom."

They walked past Amber, she was still telling the fifth year off, "How many times do people have to tell you Olive Hornby, it is not nice to make fun of Myrte, how would you like to be made fun of?"

"No I wouldn't like it."Hornby said, trying to sound sorry, but failed.

"That's right, now if I catch you doing it again, or hear about it, I will put you in detention for a week." Amber said. Hornby looked horrified at the thought of detention for a week. Amber turned around as Tom walked past them.

"Tom wait, I have to talk to you." She said, she turned and gave Hornby one last warning look.

"What is it?"Tom asked, he stopped and looked at her.

"Well as you know, we are suppose to set up the Masquerade Ball." She said.

"Yes what about it?"He asked.

"Well it is only three months away, and I was thinking that we could start planning it tonight."She said, she seemed really excited about it.

"I can't do it tonight, why don't you just do it? You seemed like you really want to."Tom said, he didn't really want to deal with the stupid ball.

She sighed, "I sort of would like to do it myself, but it will take a lot of work. If you change your mind, you can still help if you want later on."

"Right I'll do that."He walked away from her.

Once they were out of earshot, Malfoy laughed, "That mudblood actually wanted you to help her on a stupid dance? How stupid could they get? The Great Tom Riddle actually spending his time on a dance."He laughed harder.

Tom rolled his eyes, "I know, it seems like she wants to spend time with it."

"Ha, that would be funny, a Slytherin and a Ravenclaw. No one is meant for you."He laughed, wiping a tear from his eye.

"Of course no one is meant for me."Tom snapped.

Malfoy stopped laughing, "I know, no one is good enough or strong enough for the Slytherin ice prince."

Tom frowned at the name, "Don't call me that."

"Then what would you like to be called?"

Tom thought for a minute, "Voldemort."

"Voldemort?" Malfoy asked, his eyebrow raised.

"Yes Voldemort, do you have a problem with that name?"His voice dangerous.

"No not at all, it is a great name."Malfoy stuttered.

"Good, because one day everyone will fear that name."Tom said.

It was later on that night. Tom was walking down the dark hallway, he was heading to the meeting with his Death Eaters. The dark hallway was lit with the torches on the wall. Half of the hall was bathed in an dull glow, the other was left in shadow. Even with the torches, the corridor was still dark. Tom walked up to a stone wall. He was about to say the password that would let him in to a secret room, when he heard something.

He turned around, his wand in his hand. He heard footsteps shuffling across the stone floor. The footsteps sounded heavy. Tom walked slowly, hiding himself in the shadows. He saw a huge figure up ahead, holding something close to his chest. Tom recognized him at once, it was the great oaf Hagrid.

Hagrid slipped into a room and shut the door, but not before looking to see if anyone was behind him. Tom wondered why Hagrid was being so secretive and careful. He knew that Hagrid had raised werewolf cubs and snuck out every night to find or fight any creature in the forbidden forest. Tom decided to follow him, to see what he had brought in the castle this time. He moved quickly, he open the door a crack so he could see inside.

Hagrid had his back to him, he was shifting things around. Tom looked around, he spotted a large egg on one of the tables. Tom watched as Hagrid found a box and laid the egg inside of it. He then lifted up a stone from the ground. The hole was big enough to hide the box, Hagrid lowered the box carefully into the ground. He replaced the stone.

Tom turned away, he waited at the end of the corridor, waiting for Hagrid to come out. A few minutes later Hagrid left the room. Once he knew that he was gone, Tom slipped into the room. He went over to were Hagrid had lifted up the stone. Tom flicked his wand and the stone came up. He pushed away the stone and reached for the egg. It was a pearl white color and about the size of a quaffle. Tom smiled, well, well, we have a spider egg.

He gently placed the egg back into the box and covered the stone. He left the room as if he had never been there.

He pointed his wand at his left forearm, a trickle of sweat rolled down his face.

_Ifencea Genjke._ He whispered.

There was a blinding green light that came from his wand. Tom gasped out in pain as his flesh was burned away. The light faded, on his arm was a scull and a snake pouring out of the mouth. The mark was a dull green, then it turned to black.

"This is our symbol, this is us."He whispered, everyone stared at the mark with amazement. "The snake represents Slytherin and the scull represents the strength that we have, the power that will await you."His eyes flashed with excitement.

"It is brilliant, you are a genius Tom."Malfoy said from the corner smiling.

"You are Tom." Everyone muttered in agreement.

"Does it hurt?"Victoria asked, she eyed him flirtish.

"Only for a little while, but a moment of pain is a life time of power." Tom replied, rolling down his sleeve.

"And if you want one, you will have to be a Death Eater."Malfoy said coming up besides Tom.

"When we have the meeting or when I summon you, the mark will turn green." And burn you, Tom thought to himself. "Who will join?"

Everyone went up to him to get the mark burned into their skin. Finally after the last person was branded did everyone start to leave, rubbing their left arm.

Tom was about to leave when he was stopped by what Victoria was saying.

"And then I found an imprint of a snake on the sink." She said to her friends.

Tom walked over to her and grabbed her shoulders, "What did you just say?"

"For a kiss and I will tell you."She said seductively.

"Stop playing around and tell me!" Tom snapped, he wouldn't kiss her if he really had to.

She pouted, but didn't dare disobey him, "I said, that there was a snake imprint on the sink in the girls bathroom on the first floor."

Tom's heart raced, "How did you find it?"

She stared at him in questioning, but didn't ask, "I was in the bathroom when I dropped my lipstick and I bent over to pick it up and I happened to look at the pipe. It had an imprint of a coiled snake on it."

Tom felt as if he could kiss her. He let go of her shoulders and walked out of the room, leaving everyone with curious faces.

Tom's thought quickly, maybe this is where the entrance of the chamber was. How could he have been so stupid not to check there. It would be the least likely place that anyone would think that the Great Salazar Slytherin would hid the chamber in a girls bathroom. No one would think he would have gone in there. But he need to make sure that he was correct. He needed proof. He then decide that he would look over Salazar's records to find a clue. Then, he would go to the bathroom.

Tom reached his room, it was a quarter past midnight. He went over to his desk and sat down, grabbing the parchment. He scanned the page, looking for something. Finally he found it.

_Salazar Slytherin was always good at machinate things._

_Besides being one of the founders of Hogwarts, he was_

_also known for his machinates and pluming. It is said _

_that he had help install the bathrooms at Hogwarts. _

_Nobody knows why he had helped in this, since he was _

_a great wizard of his time... _

Tom looked up, he stared ahead of him. His mouth curled into a smile. He had found it. Of course it would seem odd to have a great wizard such as Slytherin to be helping out with the pluming. He must have had already planned to keep the basilisk in the school. The more Tom thought about it, the more it made sense to him. The clock struck one. He looked over at the clock, he knew what he had to do.

He jumped out of his chair, knocking it over. Tom ignored it and rusted out of the room. He practically ran down the stairs and the corridors, he didn't even lit his wand. He reached the first floor bathroom. Tom pushed open the door, his wand held out in front of him if anyone was in there. There wasn't. Tom lit his wand so he could see. He walked over to the sink and examined it. He went all the way around the sink, running his hand over it. He turned on every facet, everyone worked. He came up to the last sink. It's mirror was cracked. Tom reached out for the facet, he turned it, nothing came out of it.

Tom stepped back and looked under the sink. There it was, the imprint of a snake. He ran his finger over the snake, it sent shivers down his spine. He concentrated really hard.

_Open up. _His normal deep voice came out in a hiss.

There came a whooshing sound. Tom stood back as he watch the top of the sink rise up and the sinks move down under the ground.

Tom stood there shocked, he had found the Chamber of Secrets.

Author's Note: Dun, dun, dun. So Tom has now found the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets. If you like this chapter then review!


	6. Chamber of Secrets

Author's Note: Ok so here is chapter 6! So last chapter Tom found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. Now, reviewers. **Hawilianocean**, **TRfan190,** **chocolatemuffin, Sharap'n**, **bianca89**(Thanks, I guess, and don't worry, I have a plan), and **SxC sLyThErIn LuVa( **I will put new things in, but I had to show how he knew about the egg, and sorry, but Myrtle won't die until close to the end.). Anyway here is chapter 6, enjoy!

**Behind the Mask**

**Chapter 6: The Chamber of Secrets **

The sinks had slid under the floor, leaving a big hole. Tom looked down into it, the hole was dark and steep, he wondered how long it would be. There was only one way to find out. He sat down and swung his legs over the edge. He slid into the hole. Air rushed past him as he went down. He saw there were other tunnels, but only caught glimpses of them.

It seemed as if the tunnel went on forever. Tom was starting to get very annoyed when the tunnel leveled out. He slid out and landed on the ground. He straightened up and looked around with his lit wand. There were many tunnel leading off into different directions, he could only see a few feet in front of him. He must be under the school, maybe under the lake he thought. He took a step forward and stopped. He had stepped on something that had made a crunching noise, he looked down. Tiny animal bones littered the floor. Tom frowned in disgust and started to walk.

There were many tunnels to choose from, each leading off into a different direction. Tom decided that he would take the one that was in front of him. It didn't take him long to realize why all of these tunnels were here. They were used for when the basilisk would travel around the school. It seemed that Salazar had known what he was doing.

He rounded a corner and came to an opening. Down at the far end of the tunnel was a wall, covered in carvings of snakes. Tom almost ran to the wall, his heart racing. He came up to the wall, it had a door on it, with snakes carved into it. The snakes looked as if they were alive. Tom noticed that the door didn't have a handle, he didn't worry.

"_Open up."_

The door did as he commanded, it swung forward. He walked through it as it opened all of the way. He saw that there was a large chamber, with statues of snakes, their heads touching the ceiling. Tom climbed down the stairs, the metal making him cold. Once his feet touched the ground he looked around. At the far side of the chamber was a statue of a man. The statue stood taller then the snake ones.

He walked down the hallway, his footsteps echoed against the walls. The emerald eyes of the snake seemed to follow him. He twitched, at this feeling. He came to the feet of the statue, water lapping up to his feet. He looked into the eyes of the statue.

"_Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four." _He hissed.

The statues mouth started to open, it open wider and wider until there was a huge hole. He heard something slither inside of the mouth, he heard angry hissing. The basilisk came out of the mouth and coiled in front of him. It was a poison green with big yellow eyes. It flicked its tongue out at him, it hissed angrily.

"_Who are you? Why have you come here and have awoken me?"_

Tom glared at the snake, _"I am the decedent of Salazar Slytherin. I have awoken you to do my biding, it is time for you to kill again."_

"_Decedent of Slytherin, so you are his heir." _The snake hissed.

"_Yes. I have spent the last three years finding you."_

"_Have you now." _It said sounding interested.

"_I have come here to finish my great grandfathers work. I need you to do it for me. That is why you are here in the first place."_

"_Will I be able to feed? To taste blood again?"_

"_That and more."_

The basilisk thought about it for a moment.

"_You do not have a choice. You are here to server the Heir of Slytherin, you must do as I say. I am the only one that can command you."_ Tom said dangerously.

The snake stared at him, _"You are much like your grandfather."_

Tom's mouth tightened, _"I am just the Heir of Slytherin. I am not like my family."_

"_In time you will see that you are."_

"_Enough of this. We must discuss the first attack."_

"_As you wish."_

"_There is a Quidditch_ _match this weekend. Everyone will be out of the school except for some. All of the teachers will be out watching the game. It will be perfect. The first victim will just be petrified, later, you will be able to kill."_

"_Sounds good."_

It was an hour later when Tom finally went to bed, his head buzzing. Everything was now in motion, things would be moving quickly. The week for him had gone even slower than usual. Finally the weekend had come. He had gone down to the Chamber of Secrets every night that week, planning.

Tom sat down on the couch, tired from today. He opened his book and started to read. He had only been reading for ten minutes when the portrait hole opened. He looked over his shoulder, Amber had come in, but not alone. Noel and Heart were with her. Scott Noel was in his grade and in Gryffindor, and Elizabeth Heart was in Hufflepuff. He looked down at his book again, ignoring them. He only looked up when they had gone up the stairs to Amber's room.

Amber walked into the common room, Scott and Elizabeth behind her. Tom was already in there, reading a book on the couch. As they walked by, Tom ignored them as usual. They headed up the staircase that lead to her room. Amber opened up her door and walked in. It was like her old dormitory, but more room. She had her own queen size bed with blue covers and black drapes. She had a large writing desk and banners of Ravenclaw. She lay down on her bed, Scott sat down next to her.

"I still can't believe that you have to share a common room with that creep."Scott said.

"I know, you are so lucky."Elizabeth said as she sat down in a chair.

"Why is it lucky?"Amber asked.

"Because he is so cute!"She said.

Scott rolled his eyes, "So you would want to share a common room with a guy who gets his kicks out of bring people down?"

"Well no, but he is still very cute, right Amber?" She said looking at her.

Amber shrugged her shoulders, "He is alright, and it isn't that bad sharing a common room with him. I hardly see him."

"By the way, how is the masquerade ball coming alone?"Scott asked.

"Alright so far, I am doing it by myself."She replied.

"Isn't Tom suppose to help you?"Elizabeth asked.

"Yes, but I sort of wanted to do it by myself, and I know Tom doesn't want to help."

"I will help you."Elizabeth offered.

"I will help you too."Scott said.

Amber smiled at them, "Thank you, I may take you on that offer. It's sort of hard doing it by myself."

"Then make Tom help you. It is as much as his job as yours." Elizabeth suggested.

"He will never help her. Besides, I think it is better this way, you don't have to be with him then."Scott said.

"Am I hearing a hint of jealousy Scott?"Elizabeth teased.

"No, I just think Amber shouldn't be around him. He sort of creeps me out. More than likely something bad will happen if you are around him. Look at the group that hangs around him."Scott said.

"Their Slytherin, of course they are going to act that way, and besides, I can take care of myself," then she added, "but thank you for your concern Scott."

He turned away, "Your welcome."

"Anyway, what were you thinking for the ball?" Elizabeth asked excited.

Tom sat there thinking about tomorrow. It was perfect. Everyone would be down at the Quidditch match, Dippet, the teachers, the students, Dumbledore. The corners of his mouth curled, Dumbledore wouldn't be there. It was the perfect time to attack a student and it was right under the old mans nose.

He knew which student would be attacked first, a fifth year Hufflepuff. He knew that the fifth year wouldn't be at the match tomorrow, perfect.

The match came, it was the first match of the day, Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor. Everyone was excited for the match, the Great Hall was full of chatter. Tom just sat at the table eating his eggs, his nerves standing on end. Malfoy came and sat down by him.

"Ready for the match Voldemort?"He snickered.

Tom threw him a dangerous look, "Do not call me that when there is people around."

Malfoy recoiled, "Sorry Tom, I won't. I only said it because that is your new name, right?"

"It is, but only my intimate friends should only know about it, not the whole inter school."He snapped, turning back to his eggs.

"Tom, you honor me by calling me your intimate friend."Malfoy said proudly.

"Don't flatter yourself Malfoy."He said.

It was noon, everyone got up and proceeded down to the Quidditch pitch. Tom walked out of the Great Hall and followed the crowd. They were half way down to the pitch when he turned back to the castle, telling Malfoy that he had forgotten something and would see him later at the game. Malfoy just nodded his head and kept walking.

Amber was in the changing room, getting ready for the match. She went over in her head of all of the plans that they had been practicing for the past two months . She looked up at the time, she grabbed her broom.

"All right team, it is time to go."

They walked out onto the field, the students cheering them on. The announcer was calling everyone names. They walked to the middle of the field where the Gryffindors were waiting for them.

"Captains shake hands."

Amber stepped forward and shook Scotts hand, she went back to her team.

"Mount your brooms." Madame Finren kicked open the create, the bludgers and the snitch flew out of the box. Madame Finren grabbed the quaffle.

Everyone kicked off of the ground, Amber the lowest. Madame Finren blew her whistle and threw the quaffle up into the air. She grabbed the quaffle and flew high into the air.

Amber looped around the other chasers as she headed for the Gryffindor goal hoops, where Scott would be waiting for her. She dodged a bludger and a chaser, she was coming up to the goal post. She wove back and forth and threw the quaffle.

"Ravenclaw scores! Ten to zero!"

She went back for the quaffle smiling.

Tom ran his finger down the wall, blood dripping down. He glanced over his shoulder, the fifth year boy was on the ground, his eyes staring ahead of him, they were full of shock. He grinned at the sight of this and finish the message. He walked away, stepping in a puddle of water.

"Where were you Tom? The match has been on for an hour!" Malfoy yelled as Tom came to stand by him.

"No where." He replied looking up at the game.

He saw the players up in the air, throwing the quaffle back and forth. He spotted a black haired girl up there, throwing the quaffle back and forth between her and her chaser. A bludger came at her, but she dodged it. She went to the goal hoop and was about to throw, but faked it and pasted it to her chaser who scored in another hoop.

"Ravenclaw scores! Ravenclaw a 150, Gryffindor 100!"

The game had gone on for another half an hour when Gryffindor got the snitch. But even though they had got the snitch, they still lost, Ravenclaw had 260 when they only had 250.

"That was a horrible game, we are so going to kill them when we play them."Abraxas said as they moved out the stands.

"Of course, Slytherin has not lost a game for over fifty years!"Warren Nott yelled punching the air.

"I can't wait to make some houses cry!" William Black said gleefully.

They all laughed as they walked back up to the castle. They were in the Great Hall when they heard loud cheering coming up from the field. The Ravenclaw house and team where coming up the field cheering for their victory. As they came by, Malfoy, Nott, and Black boo them as they walked by. The Ravenclaw house just glared at them and continued to cheer.

"We scared them."Malfoy said smirking.

"Yes, you could tell be the way they coward."Tom said lazily.

They burst out laughing, Tom just rolled his eyes and headed up the stairs. He had just put his foot on the first step when they heard screaming. The hall went quite. There was more screaming, everyone around them started to run up the stairs, Tom in the lead, smiling. By the time they had reached the third floor, there was a giant circle.

"Let me through I am Head Girl." Amber came by them still in her Quidditch robes. She pushed her way through the crowd. There was silence for a minute.

"Someone go get the Headmaster!"

A Seventh year ran past them, Tom started to push through till he reached the front. There was the fifth year lying on the floor. Malfoy pushed to the front, his saw the boy on the ground and then to the wall.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been open, enemies of the heir beware."He read, a smile crept to his lips.

"Let me through, let me through!" The Headmaster said as he moved through the students, Dumbledore behind him.

Dippit stopped as he saw the boy on the ground then at the wall, he looked back at Dumbledore as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Everyone head back to their common rooms, Mr. Riddle, Miss. Lynwood." Dumbledore said.

The students started to fade as they headed back to their common rooms, talking about the attack. Tom and Amber walked up to Dumbledore.

"I want you both to make sure that everyone is in their common rooms, no one is to be out of the common rooms until the Head of Houses come to talk to them. I want you to patrol the corridors, do not do it alone, be together at all times, do I make myself clear?"He said, for some reason he looked at Tom when he had said the last part.

"Yes sir."Amber said.

Tom just shrugged his shoulders and walked away. He was half way down the corridor when Amber caught up with him.

"What do you think happen to the boy?"She asked coming up besides him.

He shrugged his shoulders again, "By the looks of it, the boy was petrified."

She gasped, "But how could he be petrified?"

"Probably whatever got him had the power to petrify whoever."He said offhanded.

"I wonder what sort of thing would do that? And what did it mean 'The Chamber of Secrets has been open, enemies of the heir beware?'" Her face scrunched up in confusion.

"It could mean anything."

They walked around the school making sure that no one was out. After an hour and five students later, Dumbledore had found them.

"Mr. Riddle, Miss, Lynwood." He waited for them to walk over to him before he continued, "It seems that young Mr. Hendion has been petrified. We do not know how yet, but we are going to find out. Please go back to your common room."

They nodded their heads and head to their common room. They didn't speak until they were a floor above.

"The 'heir' or whatever did that to the boy must have been really smart."Amber said.

"How so?"He asked.

"Well, whoever the 'heir' is, must have known that everyone would have been down at the match. It makes perfect sense to make an attack, no one was in the school besides only a few people."

Tom forced himself not to roll his eyes, "That sounds like a good theory."

She shrugged her shoulders, "It is just a thought."

They walked the rest of the way in silence. When they had reached the common room they had gone their separate ways. He climbed the stairs to the room and shut the door behind him. He started to make a list in his head for who would be next. He smirked, Lynwood would be one of them.

Author's Note: Ok so there was chapter 6! I hope you liked it! So anyways, please review!


	7. Heads Colliding

Author's Note: Ok so here is chapter 7! A big thanks to these reviewers for reviewing! **Lovebehindsilvermask, cheesepufflover, and Trfan190**. Anyway her is chapter 7, enjoy!

Behind the Mask 

**Chapter 7: Heads Colliding **

It was a week after the boy had been petrified, and the school was in an uproar. The teachers had tried to act like everything was fine and that a monster was not lose in the school. Tom was please to see that the school was acting like nothing was happening. He saw fear in some of the students and worry in the teachers. This made him laugh. Even though all of the teachers were worried, even Dippit, one, however, remained calm. It seemed that the attack had not scared Dumbledore. The old man had seemed worried, but he had gotten over it quickly. This made Tom furious that Dumbledore wasn't afraid, that he was acting calm.

Over the week, Slytherins had come up to him asking if he knew anything about the Chamber of Secrets. Ever single time someone asked him, he would say no. He knew that it wouldn't be a good idea if people knew he knew about the chamber, even if people knew that he didn't know everything. He knew if he would tell someone right away a little bit about the chamber, they would go straight to a teacher. They would then make him tell them what he knew. So he decided that he would wait a week and then tell a little bit about what he knew so people would go back to think he knew everything.

Tom had walked out of the girls bathroom, he had just finish talking to the basilisk about their next attack. He was half way down the hall when a bright light popped up in front of him. Quickly he pulled his wand out, he waved his wand. A blind blue light shot out of his wand and hit the other person. There came a yelp of pain as the spell hit the person, the light went out.

He lit his wand, casting a faint light over the hallway. Amber was standing there in the shadow, rubbing her wrist where the spell had hit her. He glared at her, why was she out so late he wondered. She looked up at him, also glaring.

"God Tom, why did you do that?" She asked still rubbing her wrist.

"What are you doing out so late?" He asked, ignoring her question.

"Why are you?" She shot back.

"I am Head Boy, I am allowed to be out here." He replied coolly.

She rolled her eyes, "I know that, besides, you are forgetting that I am the Head Girl, so I am also allowed to be out." She flicked her wand making it light up.

With her lighting her wand, Tom could see her more clearly. "You still didn't answer my question." He said.

"Neither did you." She said.

"I have my reasons." He said walking up to her.

"As do I." She said crossing her arms. She was a head shorter then Tom, so she had to look up at him.

"You will tell me Mudblood." He said dangerously.

To his surprise she snorted, "It's funny how you think I am going to tell you just because you called me a Mudblood." She said smirking. "How about I call you a jerk, then will you tell me why you are out?"

He frowned at her, he didn't like that she was mocking him, "No." He walked away from her.

"That's what I thought." She said following him.

"Leave me alone."

"Oh don't worry I will. I am only following you because we are both heading to the same place." She said walking besides him.

"Sure, or you are just following me because you don't want to get attack by the monster." He said, he wanted to see how far he could push her.

Again, she snorted. Tom decided that noise could get very annoying. "Right, because I know that you will protect me." She said trying not to laugh.

"Like I protect you." He said, he started to climb the stairs, Amber behind him.

"I know you wouldn't, besides, I am not scared." She said.

He glanced over at her, "Why aren't you scared? It seems that the monster only goes for Mudbloods."

She gave him a dirty look, "Even though I am Muggle-born, I am not scared of the monster."

He raised his eyebrow, "It could get you."

She shrugged her shoulders, "The likely hood of it getting me is a one to a hundred chance. And if it does happen to petrify me it won't be the end of the world. And if I am petrified, it would leave all of the Head Boy and Girl responsibility on you, _including_ the masquerade ball."

He flinched at the thought of that, maybe he would petrify her after the ball. "Point taken."

"Anyway, why aren't _you_ scared?" She asked.

"Because I am not Muggle-born." He said.

She looked at him as if he was stupid, "Besides that."

He didn't like how she was treating him, "Because I know it won't come after me, it can't petrify me."

"How do you know? It could have something more then just petrifying, it could still kill you." She said.

He sighed, why couldn't she have been stupid. "It just won't come after me, don't ask why, but it won't." He snapped, she was starting to get him angry.

She backed off, "Fine, I won't."

They had reached the common room. Amber didn't say good night, but headed up her stairs without a word. Tom went up to his room, he head buzzing.

He woke the next morning to find the sun wasn't up. Grumbling he turned over and tried to go back to bed. He tossed and turned for a while and then gave up. He pushed back the covers and headed for the showers. He turned on the faucet, cold water poured out. Ice drops of water fell onto his head making him light headed. He shuttered as the water dripped down his back.

Usually he would spend a long time in the shower, but it seemed unbearable this morning. Tom quickly stepped out of the shower, wrapping a warm towel around himself. He was about to walk out of the room when he heard something, it was water running. He turned around to find the source, but everything was turned off. He grinned, it seemed that he wasn't the only one that couldn't sleep.

The sun was starting to peak over the treetops when Tom headed down to the common room. The light from the sun was casting a glow into the room, bathing everything in orange. A weak fire was burning in the fireplace. Tom flicked his wand lazily, the fire started to blaze. In no time, the freezing room was filled with warmth. He sat down on the coach and started to plan.

It was an hour later when he heard a door being shut. A few seconds later, Amber came down the stairs. She stopped when she saw him. She pretended that he wasn't there and sat down in a chair. She reached for a book on the table and started to read.

They sat in silence for a while, not wanting to talk to each other. Finally Amber slammed her book shut, she glared at him.

"What is wrong with you?"

He looked at her frowning, "Beg your pardon?"

"Why do you act so mean and tough? The only reason that I can think of is that you do it because you are trying to cover up something that you don't want over people to know." She said angrily.

"Did you spend all night thinking on this, cause if you did, then that is sad." He said.

"See right there, you are being mean."

"That wasn't childish at all."

"Shut up, you know what I mean."

"Now who is being mean."

She sighed in frustration, Tom on the other hand was amused to see her like this. He wondered what she was trying to get at, he decided to play along.

"Personally I don't think there is anything wrong with me." He said.

"You may think that there is nothing wrong with you, but I do."

He leaned forward, "Do tell."

"Well for starters, you seem to try to push me around."

"I always push people around, you are no one special."

She ignored his comment, "Second, you strut around like you own this place. Third, you are very mysterious, going around the school at night for no reason."

"You were doing the same thing."

Still ignoring him she continued, "Fourth, you seem to have an unusual amount of followers. I say followers because it is impossible for you to have friends."

He flinched when she had said followers, "Ouch that was mean. Are you sure that you aren't a Slytherin."

"No, I am just honest, which the Slytherins lack."

"What ever, are you done scolding me?" He was starting to get bored with this conversation.

"Almost, the last thing that is wrong with you is that you seem to use anger as a defense. For what I have no idea." She said, "It seems that you wear a mask, you wear it when you go around the school acting like the innocent Head Boy. But the mask comes off when you are angry and probably when you are around just your followers."

Tom stood up, anger pounded in his ears, his fist clenched together, "You don't know me, you have no idea what you are talking about." He whispered, his voice dripping with venom.

She stared at him calmly, this only made Tom madder. "Why are you sitting there so calmly?" He said yelling, "Why aren't you afraid of me?"

She raised her eyebrow at him, "why should I?" She asked calmly.

"Because everyone is afraid of me! Everyone would be cowering right now if I were yelling at them." He said still yelling. He started to pace. Every now and then he would giver her dirty looks, she just watched him walk back and forth.

He started to think out load to himself, "I don't get you. Everyone does as I bid, they tremble from my power, they dare not argue with me." He stopped pacing and glared at her, "You don't do these things. Why?"

She tilted her head, "Because I am not afraid of you. I don't let others push me around."

"You sound like a Gryffindor." He snapped.

"Even though I talk like a Gryffindor, I act like a Ravenclaw." She said.

"You act like a Slytherin too."

"Not really, I may speak my mind and fight back, but that doesn't make me a Slytherin."

"Really, sneaking around at night, back talking, gaining one of the highest powers at this school. Sounds a little bit like a Slytherin." He said, his voice calmer.

"First of all, everyone sneaks around at night. I talk back to stand up for myself. And gaining the highest power, well, I think everyone wants at least a little bit of it." She said lazily.

They stood there glaring at each other for a while, both not knowing what to say next. Tom hated that she was challenging him, nobody had ever done that. He hated that she was standing up to him, that she wasn't afraid. He waited for the anger to rise up in him… he felt nothing. He frowned, he thought of this again. Still nothing, he only felt glad. His frown deepened, how could he be glad?

"Why do you have that look on your face?" Amber asked, her voice brought Tom out of his thoughts.

"What are you talking about?" He snapped.

"You had a weird look on your face." She said.

"Like what?"

"Happy."

Author's Note: Ok so there was chapter 7. Hope you liked it! Anyway, please review!


	8. Another Attack

Author's Note: Ok so here is chapter 8! A big thanks to these reviewers for reviewing! Trfan190, Hawilianocean, snowredrose, and Reaper3698. Anyway, here is chapter 8, enjoy!

Behind the Mask 

**Chapter 8: Another Attack**

No mattered how hard he tried, Tom couldn't get her words out of his head. Their conversation the night before had played over and over in his mind. What she had said drove him crazy. 

"_It seems that you wear a mask, you wear it when you go around the school acting like the innocent Head Boy. But the mask comes off when you are angry and probably when you are around just your followers."_

How would she know if he wore a mask? She didn't know him, she couldn't possibly know what he has done.

"_You strut around like you own this place."_

He didn't strut around like he owned Hogwarts, it was his home yes, but it wasn't his. He didn't act all high and superior in front of the school, it was only when he was with his followers.

"_You seem to have an unusual amount of followers. I say followers because it is impossible for you to have friends." _

She had no idea what she was talking about. On some levels she was right, that he didn't consider them his friends and she was sort of right when she said that he couldn't have any friends. But she didn't know the real reason why he didn't have friends.

But what really got him was that she wasn't even afraid of him, even after he had yelled at her. Everyone was afraid of him in a respect sort of manner. Even the teachers knew that there was sort of an air about him that made people tremble. He knew everyone was afraid of him, except Dumbledore. He wasn't really surprised that the old man wasn't afraid of him, which he admired about him. For some reason, Tom was glad that Dumbledore wasn't scared of him. To make things even weirder, he was kind of glad that Lynwood wasn't afraid of him.

He was in the meeting room thinking about all of this as he waited for the others to arrive. He thought about what Lynwood had said to him and how she was sort of right. He rubbed his chin, the last thing that she had said to him before he went to bed came to his mind. She had said that he had looked happy. He was happy even before she had said that, or was it just fake. And how she had said that he wore a mask. Well that was obvious that he does. He always hid his anger and hate behind a smile and happy. Maybe she was right.

The wall opened as people started to come inside, and to his delight, some were rubbing their arms. He got up from his chair and started the meeting.

Amber was sitting on the couch looking over the dance plans, when her friends walked in. Scott came over to sit by her as Elizabeth took a seat in a chair.

"How is the planning going?" Scott asked, draping his arm just behind her back.

"Stressful, I have only just started on it." She said sighing.

"I'm not surprise," Elizabeth said, "you have been really busy since you have had head duties, Quidditch, homework…"

"And Riddle not helping." Scott added.

"Please I don't want his help," Amber said nastily, "He is such a jerk. Did you know that he tried to push me around."

"What!" Scott said, jerking forward to look at her.

"Oh please Scott, he pushes everyone around. It isn't surprising that he would try to push her around." Elizabeth said rolling her eyes.

"Still, he shouldn't be pushing you around." He said turning his attention back to Amber.

"I know, so that is why I didn't let him." She said.

"Good, because if he had done anything to you..."

"You'll what Scott? Hit him? He will curse you even before you pull back." Elizabeth said.

"Not if I sneak up on him."

"He will still curse you."

"No he won't, he would be in a coma when…"

"Thank you guys for your concern," Amber said cutting them off, "But I can handle this on my own."

"I'm telling you Amber, Riddle is a creep and you shouldn't be around him." Scott said putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I know that he is a creep and I can't stay away from him. He is the Head Boy and I am partners with him in potions." She said.

"Well can you try to spend a little less time with him?"

"Do I hear a hint of jealousy?" Elizabeth asked.

"I am not jealous, I am only concerned for her." Scott said throwing her a dirty look.

"Sure, what every you say."

"Anyway," Amber said, as Scott opened his mouth to say something back, "I am fine, I can take care of myself. Personally, I think that Tom doesn't like me and that he will leave me alone."

"You're right, anyway, what were you planning for the masked ball?" Elizabeth asked.

Everyone was leaving the room, talking about what they had just learned. Tom waited before everyone had left when he left the room. In only a few minutes he was standing in front of the statue of Salazar Slytherin, calling the basilisk from the depths. He waited for the snake to coil out onto the floor before speaking to it.

_Our first plan had gone well, it is time to attack again. _He hissed.

The snaked flicked his tongue out at him, _Just tell me where, who, and when._

Tom grinned, _Tomorrow._

The next day, Tom woke up at his usual hour. The sun was peeking over the treetops as he got up. An hour later he sat down at his desk to finish his homework which he had put off until now. It had only taken him ten minutes to finish all of his homework so he had a lot of time left until breakfast started. He heard a door slam and feet on the steps. He wondered why Lynwood was up so early. Ignoring the thought he went over some spells that he had invented the day before.

He was sitting at the Slytherin table when Malfoy, Black, Flint, and to his dismay, Quentin sat down at the table. Immediately, Quentin sat down by him and laid her head on his shoulder, her blonde hair on his back.

"Hi Tom, how is my sweetheart this morning?" She said girlishly.

In response, he pushed her away and got up, "See you in class."

"Ok." She pouted.

"Not you." He snapped. He walked away, but when he looked over his shoulder, he saw her snuggle up to Malfoy. He shook his head and walked outside.

Since everyone was at breakfast, there were hardly any people outside. Since the courtyard had to many people, he decided that he would take a walk around the lake. He had only reached the bottom of the hill when he spotted someone. Amber was leaning against the tree, gazing out on the water. He was about to turn away, when she heard him. She turned around.

"What are you doing out here?" She asked.

"Walking, what about you? Why aren't you with your airheads?" He snickered.

She smirked, "I don't know, why aren't you with your followers?"

A flicker of annoyance flashed through his eyes, but only for a second, "They aren't my followers."

She shrugged her shoulders, "Then they aren't my airheads."

Ignoring her, he walked to the edge of the water. He could feel her eyes on his back, watching him. He glanced over his shoulder to see what she was doing. She was looking at something on her sleeve.

"So why are you really out here?" He asked.

She shrugged her shoulders again, "I don't know, to think. How about you?"

"To be alone."

She nodded her head like she knew, "Quentin getting to you?"

He looked, "How did you know?"

She grinned, "I've seen how she hangs on you and how you always move away as if she was infected with a disease."

"And why are you watching me?"

"I'm not, I just find if very funny that she does this to you when I actually look at you."

"Really, why aren't you in Slytherin?" He asked.

"Please, I am to smart and nice to be in Slytherin." She said crossing her arms.

"I'm smart and sometimes you aren't nice."

"Well then I don't know."

"Maybe you secretly want to be one." He said.

She rolled her eyes, "Oh yes I want to be one so I can hang all over you."

He smirked at her response, maybe he shouldn't attack her for a while. She was pretty fun to be around. Wow, wait a minute, he did not just think that she was fun to be around. And why would she? She mocked him, challenged him, she was smart and good looking. He shook his head, he shouldn't be having these thoughts, they weren't natural.

"You know it is very annoying when you go all quite like that when I am arguing with you." She said, making him come out of his thoughts.

"Well it is very annoying when you interrupt me while I am thinking." He said shoving his hands in his pocket.

She stared at him, her brows together, finally she spoke, "Why do you keep showing up where I go? Why do you keep talking to me even though I know you hate me?"

He opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to think. Why did he keep showing up where she went? And he had no idea why he kept talking to her. For once in his life, he couldn't answer a question.

"I don't know," He said honestly, "I don't know why we keep meeting and arguing."

She uncrossed her arms and walked over to him. She came right up to him, she was so close that he could smell her rose perfume.

"I know why you do." She whispered.

"Why?" He asked, looking down at her, their lips just inches apart.

"Because you like me. You argue with me because you like me. You like that I don't follow your orders and that I stand up to you." She said.

"You are wrong," He said, for some reason it was hard for him to swallow, "I hate you. I hate that you aren't afraid of me, that you don't do what I say, and that you fight me."

She moved in closer to him, her lips by his ear, "And that is why you like me." She whispered, it sent a shiver down his back.

She moved away as the bell rang, smiling she turned and walked away. Tom just stood there, rooted to his spot. Finally he was snapped out of his daze and ran up to the school.

He ran into the Divination room with only a minute to spare. Professor Vetcen smiled at him and asked him to take a seat. He quickly sat down next to Malfoy, trying to catch his breath. He saw that Amber was only a few tables away. She saw him look at her and she grinned. He turned away, trying to listen to what Vetcen was saying.

It was the longest day that he had ever had. During all of his classes he couldn't get her out of his head. He knew that he had to concentrate on his classes and what would happen later on that night, but he couldn't get her out of his head. All he could see was her standing in front of him and her lips.

At the dinner, he sat with his head in his hand and picked at his food. The other Slytherins asked him what was wrong, but he didn't reply. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. He got up from the table and walked out of the Great Hall.

He knew that he only had two more hours until the next attack would happen. He decided that he would go to the library for a while where he could be alone. To his relief, Amber wasn't in there. He headed to the back of the library into the Restricted Section. Madame Trishen, the Liberian, only glanced up at him as he walked by. He grabbed one of the Advance Transfiguration books and picked a table at the far back. He opened the book and tried to concentrate on it. The words swam before him, making it difficult to read. He shook his head to make them stop moving. Finally they stopped.

He had spent the next hour and a half in the library trying to read the book, but he couldn't. Finally he slammed it shut, making the Liberian jump. He muttered his apologies as he walked out of the library. He was climbing the stairs as he heard someone yell a floor above him. He heard people moving around on the upper floor. He ran up the stairs, he didn't want to miss this.

There were people in the corridor as he suspected. He pushed his way through the crowd to get to the front. Lying in the middle of the floor was a girl. Her petrified face was full of shock and fear. He felt someone push past him. It was Dippit.

"Everyone, return to your common rooms." He said, his face pale.

Everyone started to move away, including Tom. He decided that he wouldn't go back to the common room just yet. Instead, he walked around a little bit. He watched as terrified students went past them, huddling in their groups. Smirking, he just walked past them. He was about to go up the stairs when something hit him. His knees buckled and he fell forward and hit the marble stairs hard. He felt shooting pain go through his head. Before he blacked out, he saw a figure standing above him.

Author's Note: Ok so there was chapter 8! Hope you liked it! Anyway, please review!


	9. In My Head

Author's Note: Ok so here is chapter 9! A big thanks to these reviewers for reviewing! **Trfan190, Lovebehindsilvermask, snowredrose, Hawilianocean, and kt. **Anyway, here is chapter 9, enjoy!

Behind the Mask 

**Chapter 9: In My Head**

His vision was starting to clear, he could now just barely see the outline of someone above him. His head was pounding as if something in his head was trying to get out. He could feel that he was lying on the common room couch, he tried to push himself up. A wave of nausea came over him. It took almost every ounces of control for Tom to hold back throwing up.

"I wouldn't move just yet." Said the voice, pushing him back down

He looked over at her and glared. Amber was sitting by him, her face calm. Ignoring her he pushed her hand away and sat up. Another wave of nausea came over him and he felt dizzy.

"Why am I here?" He asked.

"I found you on the stairs, it seemed that you past out." She said getting up and she went up to her dormitory.

Tom looked after her. He past out? That doesn't seem right, he had never past out before without someone behind it. Then he remembered that someone had hit him from behind with a spell. He clenched his fist, who would dare try to hurt him? He could think of a few people but none of them were actually brave enough to try it.

Amber had come back, she was holding a glass of water and a damp cloth. She came back over to him and handed them to him. He looked at the items and then at her as if she was stupid.

She sighed, "I know you don't trust me and that you would never use anything that I have touched because of who I am. But you better drink something before you faint again."

"I didn't faint." He snapped, but he took the glass anyway, ignoring the cloth.

He took a big gulp, feeling the cold water run down his throat. He took a few more sips before setting the glass down. Then he looked back at her.

"I was hit from behind." He said getting up, staggering a little.

Amber moved closer to him as if to steady him, but he pushed her away.

"Get off of me." He said angrily.

"Stop being a jerk and let me help you." She snapped.

"I don't need your help." He spat.

"Really, if you didn't need my help, some else would have found you and probably some not as nice." She said folding her arms.

"I didn't ask you to help me." He said.

"I know."

"Then why did you?"

She looked away, her mouth tight, "I don't know."

His face scrunched up, "What do you mean you don't know?"

"I just don't all right." She said sounding annoyed, she looked back at him.

"How could you not know?"

"I don't know, haven't you ever done something just because?" She asked.

"No, there was always a reason." He said. He rubbed the back of his head a flinched, there was a really big bump.

"I sure there was." She said and she went to the couch and sat down. She picked up a book and started to read.

Tom started to walk to his dormitory, but the blow to his head was making him stumble a little. He could tell that she was watching him walk and he knew that she was trying not to smile. He looked over his shoulder and saw that she was watching him.

"Can I help you with something?" He asked.

"No, do you?"

"I don't need help from a mudblood." He said and started to walk again. He had one foot on the stair when her next words stopped him.

"You probably wouldn't have said that if I hadn't found you." She said going back to her book.

He turned around and looked at her. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm just saying that if you would have woken up when I found you on the stairs that you would have needed my help even if you didn't want it." She said.

"And why would I need your help?" He asked, leaning against the wall.

"You wouldn't be able to do anything, not even help yourself."

"Like I said, I don't need any ones help." He said and went up the stairs.

He slammed the door shut behind him and leaned on it. He wondered why she had helped him? He thought she hated him. Besides, why would she help him after he had been horrible to her since the being of the school year?

But was worse, was that he liked that she had helped him. It sort of felt that a small burden was lifted from his shoulders. He hit himself in the head to get these thoughts out of his head. But no matter how hard her tried, he couldn't. What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he get her out of his head?

Amber watched him walk up the stairs, sighing, she started think what had happened.

She was walking down the corridor when she saw Scott standing over Tom. She ran over to him and started asking him questions. She had bent down and looked at Tom, it seemed that he was just knocked out. She looked back up at Scott for and explanation. He just shrugged his shoulders and looked away. She then made him tell her what happened.

He hit a spell at Tom when he was walking up the stairs. He had planned to take him somewhere and wait for him to come around. Apparently he had wanted to teach Tom a lesson and kind of as a warning to stay away from her.

She refused that he would do that and made him go back to his dormitory. Amber then levitated Tom back to their common room and wait for him to wake up.

Now after their conversation, she wished that she had let him lay there. Or better she should have taken him to Quentin. She shook her head, even she wasn't that mean.

But what really got to her was that he didn't even thank her, instead he yelled at her. But why did she care? She should have known that he wouldn't have thanked her, but why did she care so much that he didn't?

She got up from the couch and went to the mantel. She watched as the people in the picture frames waved at her. Her mouth tightened. Tomorrow her and Tom were going to get their picture taken so it could go on the mantel for next years Head Boy and Girl.

As she watched the pictures she realized that she hated him. She hated everything about him. From his cruelty to his hatred for the world. She hated that he mocked her and tried to push her around. She wondered why he did this to her? Why did he torment her every day and night?

She could feel anger rising up from her chest and a ringing was in her ears. Why couldn't he just leave her alone? Why did he always have to make things worse when she just wanted to help him?

She grabbed one of the picture frames from the mantel and she threw it. It hit the wall from across the room and shattered. She tried to fight back the urge to scream at the top of her lungs. Instead she flung herself onto the couch where she lay there for a while.

Tom was lying on his bed when he heard something brake in the common room. He frowned, what in Merlin's name was she doing down there.

He sat up and listened for anymore noises, but he couldn't hear anything. After a few moments he lay back down on his bed. Staring up at the ceiling, he wondered what she had broken.

There came sound of feet running up the stairs, the steps hard making it sounding like thunder. There came a sharp rap at the door. He smirked, she was angry.

He got up from the bed and went to open the door. He opened the door and found her standing there, her eyes glaring up at him. He looked down at her, placing his hand on the doorframe.

"What?" He snapped.

"Why do you do this to me?" She asked, her voice full of anger.

"Do what?"

"Torment me and hate me? What have I done to you." She asked.

"You do the same to me." He said and moved to close the door.

But she pulled out her wand and flicked her wrist. The door flew open and hit the wall with a bang.

"What are you doing?" He yelled, pulling out his own wand.

She flicked her wand again and it few out of his hand and into hers. "You are not going to block me out this time." She said. She came into the room and slammed the door behind her. She placing his wand out of reach.

"What, are you mad at me because I didn't thank you?" He mocked.

She titled her head, her eyes narrowed, "No."

"Then what? I don't know what you want from me." He snapped.

"I want you to tell me why you hate me so much."

"Why I hate you? What sort of question is that?" He asked.

"Quite playing games Riddle." She said, putting her hands on her hip.

His jaw tightened, "Fine, I'll tell you why I hate you. I hate you because I can't control you, you mock me, you test me, and you keep coming back to me and I'm glad."

Her face scrunched up, "You're glad, why? I thought you didn't have feelings."

"Right there, no one has mocked me before. As for why I am glad, I still don't know. But all I know is that I can't get rid of you and I hate it! Besides, why do you hate me?"

"Because you keep trying to control me, you think that you are better then everyone, you push my friends around, and you keep confusing me!" She said.

"First of all, I am better then everyone, second is that I push everyone one around. And as for why I confuse you, I have no idea." He said.

She tightened her mouth, "I think I know why."

"Then why don't you tell me so then we could leave each other alone." He said coming up to her.

She looked up at him, her eyes dark, "I think that you don't know how to deal with me. As you said, I mock you, you can't control me, and that I keep coming back, so you don't know how to deal with it."

"I can handle it."

"No you can't. You think that you can but you can't. My guess is that you are feeling something that you have never felt before. And what gets you the most is that you can't control it." She said flaring up.

"I can control anything."

"No you can't, you can't even control this." She said angrily and she grabbed his shirt and kissed him.

He didn't really remember what happened next. When her lips touched his, his mind seemed to shut down. He couldn't seem to concentrate on anything else.

Her lips were soft, warm, and tasted like vanilla and he had never tasted anything so good. He snaked his arm around her waste and he moved to deepen the kiss.

Then just as he did this, she pulled away. She looked at him and he saw confusion and shock in her eyes. Wordlessly, she turned and almost ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Tom stared after the door for some time trying to make out what had just happened. Finally he gave up and went to lie down on his bed. He looked up at the ceiling and ran is finger over his lips. He could still feel and taste her lips.

Amber ran down the stairs and up to her dormitory. She shut the door behind her and leaned on it. She slid down the door with her face in her hands. She could not believe that she had just kissed him. She had kissed the hated ice prince Tom Riddle.

She didn't know why she did it. She could still feel his icy, burning lips and on hers. It was the coldest kiss that she ever had, but at the same time it burned to touch. A shiver ran down her spine as she thought about the kiss.

Yet again, she had been surprised by his actions. He had not pushed her away, but he had pulled her closer and he had tried to deepen the kiss. What was wrong with him? Did he do that because he wanted to make her more confused or was there something more?

She banged her head against the door in her frustration. He was playing with her and she had let him. She banged her head again and again until she was starting to get a headache. She was so stupid to do that. She was glad that she had pulled away when she did. Letting out an angry sigh, she got ready for bed.

"All right, smile." Said the photographer as he clicked his camera.

Tom didn't smile, but kept his same blank face. Amber, who was standing besides him was smiling. He could tell by her body position towards him that she was mad at him and trying to ignore him. She was standing a good foot away from him and she never looked at him. He was glad that she was doing this, it gave him another reason to ignore her.

The camera clicked again making him blink. He wondered how much longer this would take. He was starting to get very bored just standing there when the photographer said that they could go. Amber walked out of the room with out looking back. Smiling he followed her out the door.

Tom walked into the Slytherin common room. Since it was the weekend, everyone was either outside or doing homework. He spotted Malfoy, Black, and Flint sitting around the table talking.

"Ah the great Voldemort has come to join us!" Malfoy yelled as he came and sat down.

"Yes I have come to join my Death Eaters." He said swinging his feet around so they hung off of the chair arm.

"So how was the picture with the mudblood?" Flint asked.

"What do you think?" He said.

"You tortured her and you belittled her." Malfoy smiled.

"Of course he would do that, what else would he do. Right Tom?" Black said looking at him.

"Mmmm, what?" He asked, he had been thinking.

"That you would do nothing less then torture the mudblood." Black repeated.

He looked away, "Yea, nothing less."

They all looked at him, all of them had confused looks.

"Mmmm, Tom, are you all right?" Flint asked.

Tom looked back at them, his eyes like daggers, "Of course I am all right. I just have a lot on my mind right now."

They backed off once he said this. "Sorry." They mumbled.

"I have to go." He said and he got up and left the room.

Why was she getting to him he thought as he climbed up the stone stairs. No one has ever gotten to him before besides Dumbledore, but he didn't show his feeling around the old man like he did with Lynwood. He couldn't understand why he told her things and felt things that he had never felt or said before. And for the first time in his life he was very confused and he didn't know how to deal with it.

He stopped walking, maybe she was right. Maybe he couldn't control everything. The more he thought about it the more confused he got. It seemed impossible that he couldn't control everything and that he couldn't deal with how he was feeling and with Lynwood.

Then he saw Amber walking across the hallway. He stood there frozen as he watched her walk up the stairs. His mind started to work furiously as he thought. His brain then stopped as if he couldn't think anymore. He ran after her hoping that he would catch her and finish what they had started.

He saw her at the end of the hall and was about to say the password to the Ravenclaw common room.

"Lynwood!" He yelled.

She stopped as she was about to walk in and looked at him, "What?" She yelled back.

He ran up to her, his breath coming in a little short, "Why can't I get you out of my head." He said.

"What?" She said, her face scrunching up.

"You heard me, tell me why can't I get you out of my head?" He demanded.

She folded her arms, "You are seriously asking me this?"

"Quick playing and tell me."

"You really haven't figure it out yet have you?" She said smirking.

"What haven't I figured out?"

"I bet it is eating you alive that you don't know."

"Quick playing and tell me!"

Her smirk turned into a smile, "I know you know, it is just taking a long time for you to realize it because you have never experienced it before."

He frowned, "What does that mean?"

"I'll let you figure it out." She said and she walked into her common room, leaving Tom standing there by himself more confused then ever.

Author's Note: Ok so there was chapter 9, hope you liked it! Anyway, please review!


	10. Whispers of an Angel or Devil

Author's Note: Ok so here is chapter 10! A big thanks to these reviewers for reviewing! **Trfan190, Lovebehindsilvermask, Ember Riddle, Hawilianocean, xan587, blacktears, and snowredrose.** Anyway, here is chapter 10, enjoy!

Behind the Mask Chapter 10: Whispers of an Angel or Devil 

They were sitting in Potions class working on their potion. The room was filled with different smells and colored mist rising above the cauldrons. Tom sat silently and started to cut up the mint leaves in front of him. For the past week, they had been working on the Amortentia potion, which is the strongest love potion there is. He added the leaves into the pearl colored potion. The potion turned a solid gold color. Mother-of-pearl sheen swirled around in the air above his cauldron. He leaned over the cauldron and sniffed. He smirked, nothing.

Every time he made this potion he could smell nothing, he couldn't even smell his favorite food. He knew the reason why he couldn't smell anything, it only made him pleased with himself.

"Another perfect potion!" Slughorn said coming by, "You get an outstanding!"

"Thank you sir." He said looking up at the overly large man.

"Your welcome my boy!" He said beaming at him as if he was his favorite nephew, "I'm having a Slug Club meeting tomorrow if you are interested to come."

"I will be there."

"Great, see you then!" With that Slughorn went off to check on the others potions.

As Slughorn walked away, Tom started to fill empty vials full of the potion. Slughorn had asked him at the beginning of the year to bottle up any potion he made and give it to him.

He side glanced over at Amber. She was holding up a glass measuring cup and measuring the liquid inside of it. He looked back at the vial and continued to pour. Several vials later, he stood up and headed for the cabinet that held all of the other potions. He placed each one in the holder, but slipped one into his robes. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure that no one was looking, but someone was.

Amber quickly looked down when he looked over at her. Pretending that he didn't see her, he closed the cabinet door and went back to his seat. She didn't look up at him when he sat down, but kept working on her potion. Ignoring her, he pulled out a roll of parchment and started to write, waiting for her to comment. But she didn't. Finally after ten minutes of silence, he threw down his quill.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" He demanded.

She looked over at him, "Because I am concentrating on my potion."

"Really, I had no idea." He said sarcastically, "But I am talking about what I just did."

She raised her eyebrow at him, "I don't really care what you are doing with it. It is your love potion."

"That is right, it is mine." He said.

She gave him a half-hearted smile and went back to her potion. He went back to the scroll feeling slightly foolish. She knew that he was taking potion, she could pin that on him. What, why did he care? He could talk his way out of it. He had nothing to worry about.

"It is strange," She whisper after awhile, "That you would take this potion."

"Beg your pardon?" He asked.

"I said that it is odd that you are taking this potion." She repeated.

"Why is it odd? It would be like taking a potion that heals scratches." He said.

She shook her head, "No it is not. You are forgetting that this is the most powerful love potion there is. It would be like taking polyjuice potion and as dangerous as a poison."

"What ever." He said looking away.

"Another reason why it is odd that you are taking this potion is because it has to do with _love._"

He looked back at her, "What does love have to do with this?"

"Are you kidding me? Love has everything to do with this!" She said, "Personally I thought that if you wanted to torture someone you would go for the wand."

"I don't torture anyone." He said, a down right lie.

"Yes and you wouldn't tell me if you did." She said, "But I mean why would you use a love potion?"

"Do explain." He said leaning back in his chair.

"It's just, why would you use something you don't understand? Why use something if you don't know the outcome or what it could do?"

"You're not making any sense."

She leaned across him and grabbed the knife, letting him catch a wave of her perfume, "Exactly. If you can't understand what I am saying then _that_ potion would be a wrong way to torture anyone."

He swallowed, "I'm not going to use it on anyone."

"That's what I thought," She said cutting up her mint leaves, "I think you are going to use it to test yourself, to make sure that you can't love."

He flinched inward at what she said. She was right, "I have it just to have it."

"Right." She said dropping her leaves into her cauldron, making her potion turn gold.

"An also very good potion! You get an outstanding!" Slughorn said walking by.

"Thank you sir."

"You're welcome my dear! As I was telling Mr. Riddle, I am having a Slug Club tomorrow. You are welcome to come." He said smiling.

"I would love to come. Is it all right if I bring a friend?"

"Of course you can. And you too Mr. Riddle."

"Thank you sir."

Fifteen minutes later the bell rang. Everyone got up and headed for the door, Tom leading the way. He was half way up the stairs when he felt someone shove against him. Noel looked back smiling, Amber and her friend besides him. Tom glared at him, which made Noel look forward startled.

"That Gryffindor slime just touched you!" Malfoy said coming up to him, the rest of the Slytherins behind him.

"What us to take care of him?" Nott said.

"No, I will deal with him" Tom said.

The Slytherins snicker and headed the common room since most of them had a free period. When they got to the common room, everyone but Tom pulled out their homework.

Instead, he sat down in a chair and started to think what he would do after he graduated Hogwarts. He would like to travel the world. He could learn new things and meet people who could help him. Maybe after he was finished with traveling, he would come back here and try to get a job as a teacher.

As he was thinking this, another image came into his mind. It was of the night that Amber had kissed him. His stomach seemed as if they had just knotted and his insides had turned to ice. His lips tingled as if she was kissing him again. He touched his lips to stop this feeling, but it wasn't going away. He shifted in the chair, these feelings were making him uncomfortable. Why was he feeling this way?

Then he remembered asking her why she kept coming into his thoughts. He hated that she knew and that she didn't tell him. Why was this so hard to find out why she was always in his thoughts.

He was really starting to hate that he was getting these feelings. But what he hated even more was he could explain why. Then he thought about what she had said to him in class. Why would he use something that he didn't understand? Why would he use something if he didn't know the outcome or what it could do?

He straightened up in the chair. He was falling for her. But how could that be? There was no way that he could feel any emotion towards anyone but hate. But then it did explain why he hadn't figured this out early. She was right, he didn't know that he liked her this much because he didn't understand this feeling.

"Tom are you all right?" Malfoy asked.

He looked over at him, "How does love effect you?"

Malfoy frowned, "Why?"

"Just answer."

"I don't know?" He said looking confused, "I never been in love before."

"Nott, Black, Flint. Have any of you been in love?" Tom asked turning to them.

All of them shook their head.

"Why are you asking about love? I thought you hated it." Black said.

"I do, but I want to know what happens when you love someone." He said.

"Why are you asking about it now? Why the sudden interest?" Flint asked.

"I don't know, I just am!" He snapped. He got up from his chair and headed for the door.

"Where you going?" Malfoy asked.

"Out."

He walked out of the castle and onto the grounds. Other students passed him who was on their breaks. It was a little chilly out so he pulled his robes in closer to him. Gray clouds hung over the Quidditch it was going to rain.

He decided that he would take a walk around the lake to clear his mind and figure things out. An hour later he still hadn't figured it out and head off for class.

He walked into the History of Magic and sat down at the very back of the class. Usually he would sit in the front or the middle but today he didn't really feel like sitting in his usual spot. A few minutes later the rest of the Slytherins joined him at the back and took their things out.

As they were sitting there talking about Quidditch, Amber and her friends walked in, taking a seat on the other side of the classroom. He watched her walk over there, her black hair bouncing a little as she walked.

Then he had an idea. The one person that he could asked would probably be Dumbledore. He hated to admit it, but the old man would be the one person that he could go to and get answers. He was sure that Dumbledore knew something about love. He would go and see him at the end of the day.

It seemed that History of Magic was dragging on more then usual. Usually he would pay attention, but today he couldn't help drift off into space. But every once and awhile he would glance over at her to see what she was doing, to see if he could find anything in her actions. But there was none, all she was doing was writing.

For once in his life he couldn't sit still. He felt like if he couldn't move he would curse something. He also felt that if the bell or if the day didn't end soon he would break something.

The bell finally rang andright away the Slytherins group surrounded him. Amber and her group were only a few feet away from him. He quickened his step and caught up to them. He pushed right past her and knocked Noel to the side.

"Watch it Riddle!" Noel said rubbing his shoulder.

In response Tom just kept walking, the other Slytherins shoving them also.

Amber felt someone brush up against her. She looked over to see Tom shoving Scott to the side. Then the rest of his followers pushed past them, one of them shoving her.

"Why do they have to be such jerks?" Elizabeth asked glaring at their backs.

"Because there slimy gits." Scott said coming to walk beside Amber again.

"I wonder why they walked through us?" Amber asked.

"Because they are slimy gits." Scott repeated.

"Maybe." She said.

"Maybe!? Are you losing your mind!? There doesn't have to be a reason why they ran into us!" Elizabeth said.

"Are you feeling all right?" Scott said looking concerned at her, "You haven't been acting like yourself lately."

She sighed, "Yes I'm fine."

"That doesn't sound like you are fine." Elizabeth said.

"Well I have been under some stress lately. I heard that they might not let us have the dance because of the attacks that have been happening. Then there is Quidditch and homework." And because of Tom, she thought to herself.

"I know what you mean. With all the homework we have and then training and games. But you also have a lot more to do then us. Your Head Girl so you have to do a lot more." Scott said.

"Also you have to worry about the Heir of Slytherin." Elizabeth said as they walked out onto the grounds heading towards Care of the Magical Creatures.

"The creature might not get me." She said.

"It could, you are muggle-born. And so far the creature has gotten two people." Scott said.

"More than likely there are going to be more attacks, so I would be extra careful if I were you." Elizabeth said.

"Yes mother." She said rolling her eyes.

"We're serious, you could be next!" Scott said angrily.

"Calm down, I will be safe, ok?" She said holding up her hands as to back away.

"Good because I need you around so I can't beat you at Quidditch." Scott said smiling.

In response Amber just hit him and they joined the class.

Tom stood outside of Dumbledore's office, debating if he should really be doing this. At the moment he had a free period and he knew that Dumbledore would also be free so he decided that he would talk to him now. Taking in a deep breath he knocked on the door.

"Enter."

Pushing the handle he walked inside and took a deep breath. He always liked Dumbledores room. Bookshelves lined the wall; many small and large trinkets littered his desk and spare space. Red and gold banners hung on the wall. There was a cabinet on the wall and was locked up. A perch was against the wall that held a beautiful golden red bird, Fawkes the Phoenix.

Right in the middle of the room was a big oak desk and sitting in a cushion chair was Albus Dumbledore.

"Hello there Mr. Riddle. To what do I own the pleasure of seeing you?" He asked politely.

"I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions sir." He said, placing his hands behind his back.

"Of course you can. Take a seat." He said indicating to a chair.

Silently he slid into a chair and clasped his hands. He looked up into the old mans face. He looked over his half moon glasses at him as if asking to start the conversation.

"So what would you like to know?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well sir, I want to know about… love." He said, the last word coming out hard.

"Love?" He asked, his eyebrows raised, "What about it?"

"Well, what is love, how it effects people, what it does, the outcome, and other things."

"And why do you want to know about this?"

"Because we are making the Amortentia potion in potions and I want to understand it better." He said, hoping that he would buy it.

Dumbledore stared at him for a few moments. Tom felt as if his blue eyes were looking right threw him and through his lie. Just when he thought that Dumbledore wasn't going to help him, he nodded his head.

"All right. What was your first question again?"

He breathed inward, "What is love?"

"Love is an emotion, it makes people want to do things that they have never done before or thought about doing. When you love someone, it seems as if your heart is about to burst." He said, "It shows who you really are even if the person never knew who they really are."

"And this is love?"

"Oh no. This is only a part of what love is. Love is many things, depending on the person and their views of love. Love is different for almost every person." He said, his voice light.

"Right, so how does love effect a person?"

"Same thing, it effects people in different ways. Some would die for the person that they love. Others would do what the person asks of them and do it gladly."

"That is stupid." He said, his mouth thinning.

"Why is that?"

"Because love could destroy a person. Making you do things that you would never do just because the person asks you. It is a waste of an emotion. It only causes you pain."

"Do you really think so?" Dumbledore asked curiously.

"Yes."

"Well, have you ever loved someone?"

"No."

"Then I can see why you would say that. Believe me, love is the greatest thing in the world."

"How would you know?" He almost snapped.

Dumbledore eyed him, but ignored it, "Because I have been in love."

"What happened? Why isn't she with you?"

"Well, she didn't love me back."

"Were you crushed?"

"Yes I was. I never felt anything as painful. It was as if someone had stabbed me in the heart with a knife."

"Then I was right. Love is a useless emotion, it only gives you pain." He said.

"Yes and no. Yes it does give you pain, but that is life. Many people who have loved and lost say they would do it all again. They also say that they would rather have loved then to never loved at all. And I agree."

"You do? You would go through all of the pain again?" He asked confused.

"Yes I would. Even though I got hurt, I still learned what it felt like and it is the most wonderful feeling in the world." He said happily.

"How much did you lover her?"

"Very much, I would have give my life for her. I felt as if I was walking on air and that angels were whispering in my ear, then I realized that it was just her." He said chuckling.

More like the Devil, Tom thought, "I see."

"So, Mr. Riddle. Have I answered all of your questions?"

"Yes, thank you sir." He said standing up.

"You're welcome, good-bye." He said smiling.

Tom just nodded and exited the room. He walked down the hallway and entered a secret staircase. Once he knew that he was alone inside he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.

Could Dumbledore be right? It would explain a little about why he was feeling the way he was about Amber. He defiantly knew that he wouldn't die for her nor do what he had said. So that was a good sign, he wasn't in love with her, yet. He hoped that he would never love her.

She was like the devil whispering in his ear. The words that she has said to him were like poison. They were messing with his mind and it stuck to him. They were messing up his thinking and his feelings, which, he never thought that he could have. He was losing his mind. Angel, there is no way she is an angel.

He stood there for a few minutes and thought. He knew he had to deal with this, but was quite sure how to yet.

Ten minutes later he came up with a small solution for the moment. He would order the basilisk that he wouldn't petrify her or kill her until he figured things out. The masquerade ball was on Halloween night, only a few days away. If his plan worked, he could figure this out.

"Great job today team. We are defiantly going to win the match against Hufflepuff." Amber said to her team in the locker room.

"Defiantly, there is no way they are going to beat us!" One of her beaters said.

"We are going to cream them!" Her Keeper said punching the air.

"Yes we are. Now all of you get changed and I better not see a drop of mud on the ground in the castle or I will have you run laps till you drop." She said, it had been raining the whole inter practice.

As everyone got ready to make the run up to the castle, Amber went into the captain's office and shut the door. She looked at the covered desk and made a face. There were a mountain of paper and boards littering the desk. She grabbed a pile on top and started to go through it.

Fifteen minutes later she had everything organized and the office in order. She then collapsed in the chair and took out a butterbeer from her hidden stash of goods. She could hear the rain pounding on the ceiling and a clap of thunder. This would be fun to run in she thought.

She looked at a piece of parchment that held the designs of the masquerade ball. It was going to be perfect. The dance would be held on the Quidditch field under a full moon and stars. There would be a path that would lead to a garden, where there were water fountains, flowers, pixies, music, and even a gazebo.

After a while, she finished her butterbeer and grabbed a few parchments that she would need later on tonight and got ready to run to the castle.

Tom was walking down the hallway when he heard something. He could hear a raspy voice coming from the door on his left. He stopped and listened for a moment, trying to recognize the voice. Then he recognized the voice.

He silently crept up to the door and opened it wide enough so he could see in. He was right, Hagrid had his back to the door and was bending over something. He wondered what it was.

He watched as Hagrid shifted some things around and then placed a stone back into the ground. He then turned to the door and started to walk towards it. Quickly Tom hid himself in the shadows and waited for Hagrid to leave. Once he knew that he was gone, he slipped into the room.

He looked down at the spot where the stone came out, why did this seem familiar to him? He lifted up the stone with his wand. Now he remembered.

The spider egg lay at the bottom of a hole. Gently he picked it up and raised his eyebrows. This egg was only a few days away from hatching. Smirking, he put it back into the hole and replaced the stone. A plan started to form in his head, he had big plans for the spider.

Author's Note: Ok so there was chapter 10, hope you liked it! Please read and review!


	11. Kiss and Tell

Author's Note: Ok so here is chapter 11! A big thanks to these reviewers for reviewing! **Trfan190, Lovebehindsilvermask, blacktears, snowredrose, Snow Maiden25, and Hawilianocean. **Anyway, here is chapter 11, enjoy!

Behind the Mask 

**Chapter 11: Kiss and Tell**

_He was walking down a dark hallway. The few torches that were lit flickered as he passed them. Tom had no idea why he was walking around the corridors, but he felt like he should be here. It felt like he had to find something before it was too late. His footsteps echoed off of the wall, the sound making him uneasy._

_He stopped, he heard something behind him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand. Turning around quickly he held his wand out to defend himself. He lit his wand._

_Nobody was there. He moved a few feet forward to try to see further down, but nobody was there. But he could still hear someone or something._

_He turned around in a circle to find the noise, then he went to the wall. He pressed his ear up against the cold wall._

There came a slithering sound and it was moving forward. He then heard someone speak in a raspy voice.

"_Kill, time to kill!" The voice said moving further away._

_Tom stayed where he was, waiting for the basilisk to petrify or kill who ever. A few minutes later he heard a gasp from a few feet down and then a thud. With his wand still lit, he walked down the hallway to where he would find the body._

_At the far end of the corridor, the body lay. There were no torches down there so he only had his wand to see the outline of the person. From what he saw the person was a girl because he could see long hair. He stopped where he was. For some reason he couldn't breath and he was worried. The more he stared at the body the more he couldn't breathe._

"_Tom." He heard her whisper._

_He backed up to the wall and clutched his throat. His breaths coming out short and hard._

"_Tom. TOM!"_

He jerked forward and blinked, he was in the common room. He felt someone touch his shoulder and he jumped. Amber was sitting besides him, her gray eyes full of concern.

"Are you all right?" She asked softly taking her hand away.

"What happened?" He asked breathing hard.

"You feel asleep." She said moving back a little, "Your chest started to rise up and down really fast and they you started to hyperventilate. It sounded like you were choking. So I woke you up."

He leaned forward and placed his head in his hands, try to get his breathing under control. He had never had a dream like that before. It wasn't unusual that he would wake up breathing heavily, but that was only because of his nightmares. This one was different, more real.

He looked up at her. She was staring at him, waiting for his reaction. He tried to look away, but couldn't. Her concern eyes held his cold ones. He swallowed, why couldn't he take his eyes off of her?

Instead of answering that question he pushed it to the back of his mind and got up and went to his room.

He leaned against the door and sighed. He ran his fingers through his hair and then looked at his hand. It was shaking uncontrollably. He looked at his other and then at his body, he was shaking.

It felt like his fingers were icing over and felt like a needle was pricking them. What was wrong with him? Why was he feeling this way? And what was with that dream?

He hated that this was happening to him. He was asking himself the same questions over and over again, he kept getting weird feelings, and he wasn't able to answer his own questions.

He grabbed a vase that was sitting on a stand and was about to throw it, but thought better of it. Instead he put the vase back in its position and started to pace around the room.

As he was pacing he took out his wand and twirled it in his fingers and every once and awhile he would levitate things out of frustration. He glimpsed at his desk and saw the diary lying open on his desk.

He stopped pacing and walked over to it. The night before he had been looking for another book in his drawer and had tossed the diary aside without even noticing what it was.

He scanned the page that it had fallen open to. It described something that had happened in his fourth year. Lazily, he picked up the diary and flickered through it, every once and awhile stopping to read what he wrote. He started to go to the back and with amazement realized that it was almost full. Funny, his whole life was in this diary, every thought, memory, and feeling.

He pulled out the chair and sat in it. He then flipped to one of the pages in the back, grabbed a quill and ink bottle, and started to write in it.

What is love? It is said that it can move mountains, still a baby's cry, to change a person. It makes a person feel like there is no tomorrow, that it is the greatest thing in the world. But is it? When love betrays the person, gives them heartache, to make their world around them collapses, and makes them feel like they have nothing to live for, is this love?

He felt like this could be the answer to his questions, but wasn't interlay sure. It seemed odd that Tom Riddle, the ice prince, the no soul, no compassion at all was experiencing love? It was impossible, love was a waste of an emotion, only caused pain he thought. Love tortured a person, he looked at his mother for this example.

She had been tortured by the love she had for his father and where had that gotten her? Alone on the streets and dead once she realized his filthy father didn't want or love her. This was love.

"Tom?"

He jerked around at the sound of the voice, causing him to knock over the ink bottle. The black ink spilt on the desk and ran onto his leg. Cursing the air he got up and looked at the door his eyes daggers.

Amber was standing in the door way, her hand on the knob.

"What do you want?" He demanded his voice full of venom.

"I wanted to see if you were all right." She said, not fazed that he was talking to her with that tone.

"What is the blood hell is with you and making sure that I am ok? God what is wrong with you!" He screamed as he went to the bathroom to get the ink off of his pants.

"Stop being dramatic." She said sounding annoyed. There came a clinking sound from his bedroom.

Muttering curses under his breath, he turned on the faucet and started wiped up the ink that had fallen on his hand. He then pulled out his wand and with a flick of his wrist the ink vanished.

He walked back into the room and stopped. She was standing by his desk her wand out. He looked at the desk and the floor and saw that the ink had been cleaned up. He looked back at her and saw her advert her eyes to the floor, her cheeks a little pink. He looked back at the desk and saw the diary.

Quickly he walked over the desk, grabbed the diary and put it in the drawer. He turned his head and gave her the coldest look he could. To his surprise, she was doing the same thing.

"Why are you glaring at me?" He asked dangerously.

"Why are you?" She shot back.

"Let me see, you come into my room uninvited, make me spill ink everywhere, and you are looking at my things." He said slamming the drawer close.

"So what's your point?"

"What's my point? You have no right to be in here!" He yelled.

She stared at him, not really taking in what he was saying, "Do you always write questions in a diary?"

He grabbed her and threw her against the wall, pinning her arms at her side. She started to struggle when she realized what he was doing. He moved in closer where there was no room for her to move, his face inches above hers.

"How much did you read?" He hissed.

"It doesn't matter," She said still trying to break free, "You won't be able to answer it."

His mouthed thinned, "Sooner or later I will know."

She laughed at him, "Not without help."

"I can figure it out alone."

"No you can't! If you could you wouldn't of had to ask your followers and other people! You would have had it figured out by now!" She said. At that moment she had gotten one of her arms free and pushed him away.

The force had made him fall to the ground, unfortunately, he still had her other arm, making her fall on top of him. He groaned as she fell on top of him, he felt her shift as to sit up, but he wasn't going to let her go that easy. He grabbed her arms again and pulled her back down and getting on top of her.

"What the hell are you doing?" She yelled.

"Tell me why I can't figure this out!" He panted.

She did a quick maneuver where somehow she ended on top of him again, "If I'm going to answer your questions I'm going to be on top."

"Why do you get to be on top?" He asked moving to get on top again.

"Because I want to be the dominant, that's why." She panted, using another move to make him stay on the bottom.

"All right! You're on top! Now will you answer my questions?" He asked after five minutes of trying to get on top, but failed.

"Yes, but you have to answer some of mine." She asked slightly out of breath.

"Fine."

"Fine, what do you want to know?"

"For starters, why are you still on top of me?"

She blushed and quickly climbed off of him, she then got up and backed away from him, "I'm off, next question."

He slowly got up, glaring at her. He moved towards her, hoping that he could make her as uncomfortable as he could. He was only inches away from her, and as he hoped, she started to back away. Every once and awhile she would let him get close to her, but then he would come even closer until she was a foot away from the wall.

Finally he thought he had corned her enough, "Why are you always checking on me to make sure that I am fine?"

"Unfortunately, I feel sort of sorry for you and you have been in pretty bad shape lately. I can't help it if I worry about you." She huffed, "My turn, why do you always keep coming back to me even though I know you hate me?"

"I don't really know. I sort of get these…unwanted feelings when I am around you and…it's confusing. Maybe if I'm by you I can understand why I am feeling this way and then I can get rid of it." He said.

"And you have no idea what these feelings are?" She asked smirking.

"Stop smirking, this isn't funny." He said his temper rising again.

"Oh, but it is. I'll end this right now, you like me! And you can't stop it!" She sang.

"I don't like anyone! Especially a mudblood like you." He snarled.

She stopped smiling and her eyes darkened, "You're only calling me that because you know I'm right."

His face turned to loath and he moved closer to her, making her back into the wall. He grabbed her shoulders and thrust her back into the position he had placed her in before. She looked up at him, her eyes narrowed.

She brought her face close to his, their nose almost touching, "See? This is why you can't answer your question. You don't have the guts to admit that you like me. You can't do anything."

"Knock it off," He whispered, "Quit tormenting me."

"How am I tormenting you? I thought you didn't like me?" She whispered mockingly, bringing her lips closer to his.

"I don't, besides I thought you didn't like me?" He said trying not to look her in the eyes.

"I don't, and I didn't think that I was tormenting you before you told me." She almost sang.

"Stop it."

"I'm tormenting you, you like me."

"Stop it." He said, she was making him angry.

"You like me."

"I said stop it!" He yelled, he closed the space in between them by accident and kissed her.

He broke away from her once his lips touched hers. He stared at her for a second, realizing what he did. She was looking at him and then to his lips. Before he knew what he was doing he was kissing her again. Instead of pulling away from him, she let him kiss her.

He couldn't pull himself away from her, but brought her closer to him. Again the feeling of his stomach turning into knots and the feeling like he could breath was back. He could only concentrate on something other then the kiss for only a second before he was brought back to her lips.

She parted her lips granting him permission for him to deepen the kiss. He took full advantage of this and deepened the kiss. Their tongues met and he heard her sigh. He felt her fingers run through his hair making him pull back for a second before replacing his lips on her neck. He trailed his hand up her waist and placing it on her side while his other hand was on her back.

"Amber!" Some one yelled from down the stairs.

She broke away from him and looked at the door and then at him. She quickly let go of him and moved to leave the door. He let her slip out of his arms and watched her walk away not wanting her to go. He quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her back into him.

"Don't go." He breathed tracing her face.

She shook her head, "I have to go, I shouldn't have done this." She slipped away from him and left the room closing the door behind her.

He went to the wall and rested his head on it. The feeling as if his stomach was in knots was still there and he felt like his heart was in his throat. He took in a few deep breaths trying to calm himself down. That was the best kiss he had ever had and her leaving made him want her even more now.

He turned around and slid to the floor. He closed his eyes and replayed what had just happened in his mind. He could still feel her against him, he felt her fingers in his hair, and her lips. As he came to the end of the kiss he wondered who was down stairs and had called her name making them stop kissing. He felt his chest tighten as he thought about her walking away and seeing who ever was down there.

He realized that he was angry that they were interrupted and he almost decided to go down stairs and curse the person and take her back. He wanted to call out her name to see if she would come back, he wanted to do anything just to hear her voice.

But he didn't do any of these things, instead he just climbed into bed still in his school robes and tried to go to sleep.

He thanked god that it was Saturday because if he had, had to go to school he would have stayed in bed. When he woke up in the morning he looked at his clock groggily, it was noon. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock again thinking that there was something wrong with the clock. There wasn't, he frowned, he had never slept in past eight before. Grumbling he climbed out of bed and changed out of his school robes.

An hour later he was walking outside and was heading to a place around the school that most students wouldn't be. He walked around a corner and he saw a horrible site.

Four Slytherin guys surrounded Amber, Malfoy standing in front of her.

He remember seeing many girls in this situation before, the boys surrounding them to mock, grab, flirt, punish, or trying to get something out of them. Some of the girls would be flirting back and letting them have their way with them, others would be cowering in fear. Usually he would be standing at the back watching them, he was to good to do what they do.

Unlike the other girls, Amber wasn't doing any of those things. She stood there, her arms folded across her chest and her lips a thin line. He could see her arms twitching a little just in case she would need her wand. He walked closer to see what they were saying to her.

"Come on Lynwood, why don't you and I just go behind the Quidditch field, I'm sure we could get a few in before lunch." Flint said with a wolfish grin.

"Yes and then I'm next, I heard that you were very good in bed." Black said coming towards her and trying to grab her.

Tom was about to run forward and grab Black, but it seemed that she was already ahead of him. She grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back and put him into a headlock. Nott came forward to help Black, but she pushed Black out of the way and in no time had both Black and Nott on the ground.

"Well, well, well, you are a feisty one." Malfoy said coming towards her.

"Back off Malfoy or you will be on the ground like your friends." She said dangerously, her eyes cold.

"Like you could really hurt me." He said and he backhanded her.

Luckily no one saw Tom jerked forward because he was about to tackle Malfoy for hitting her, but she got to him first.

She recovered quickly from the slap and instead of slapping him back, she full blow punched him in the face. Malfoy staggered back clutching his noise, blood pouring down his chin. But she didn't stop there. She came forward and punched him in the stomach and kicked him were he fell to the ground.

"Touch me again and I will kick the living daylights out of you." She said to Malfoy.

She turned around and glared at Flint, Black, and Nott, who were getting up and were about to grab her. She grabbed her wand and pointed at them, stopping them dead in their tracks. They glared at her wand and then at her. She then turned around and walked away, still holding her wand.

She past him and didn't look at him, but kept looking straight ahead of her. He turned his head to watch her walk away, a small smile on his lips. He then walked toward the Slytherins who were looking at Malfoy.

"That wasn't very smart of either of you." He said. They all looked up at him, their face cold, he decided to continue, "Any particular reason why you were going after her?"

"We heard a rumor that she was going around sleeping with a different guy ever night." Flint snipped.

"And why would you think she would do that?" He asked, he felt a little anger rise as he heard Flint talk about her like that.

"You never know." Black said snickering.

"Yes well that was very stupid of you for trying that idiotic trick you try on other girls. Are you that thick to not realize that she will fight back and win? Not to mention that she is Head Girl and the Captain of the Ravenclaw team." He asked pretending to be interested on his nails.

"Well no…"

"That's what I thought. She has more muscle, athletic ability, and strength to hurt all of you at the same time." He snapped, "So what I am saying is that you pick your battles poorly and you lost to a _girl. _And you are our Quidditch team and _my _Death Eaters, pathetic."

Malfoy spit out a mouth full of blood and looked at him, "Ban tou hulp mi?"

"No I will not help you, you were stupid enough to go after her and hit her." He said, feeling hatred towards Malfoy for hitting her.

If it was anyone else Malfoy would had glared at him until he would have fixed him, but instead he just whipped his blooding noise and looked away.

Angry and bored with them, he left them to moan about how they got beaten up by a girl. He walked back around the school and decided to wander the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

The Forbidden Forest of course was forbidden for any student to go into, but nobody really followed that rule if they thought they were tough enough or as a dare to go in there. Many were found by the teachers and never enter the forest again. Tom on the other hand had been in there many times were he could walk through there blind folded.

The outer trees were turning a golden red color since they were in the middle of October. A cool breeze blew past him making him shiver, he wrapped his coat more tightly around him.

He looked up into the sky and saw a barn owl flying over the trees. This reminded him that Halloween was only a week away. Funny, when he was in the orphanage the children had dressed up as witches, ghost, werewolves, and other creatures, who would have thought that they were real.

Author's Note: Ok so there was chapter 11! Hope you liked it! If you did please review!


	12. Masquerade Ball

**Author's Note: **Ok so here is chapter 12! A big thanks to these reviewers for reviewing!** Kitty, Peanuckle (I will do that, thanks for catching that), Hawalianocean, Trfan190, crazy4band, brokenheart, Lovebehindsilvermask, Ashmoore, and snowredrose**. Anyway, here is chapter 12, enjoy!

Behind the Mask 

**Chapter 12: Masquerade Ball**

Christmas was when you would open presents and eat dinner with your family, which he didn't have any of this in the orphanage. Easter was a day when a stupid rabbit came around to leave eggs, which he hated. And Valentines Day was a day for love, which he also hated because it had to do with love and it just gave people an excuse to snog each other in public.

But not Halloween, this one was different from the others. Halloween was Toms only favorite holiday. It was the best an only holiday he thought that should stay and the others should be canceled, it was perfect. It was the only time of year that celebrated being someone or something else. It was the time of the year where it celebrated being a witch, wizard, ghost, werewolf, and anything that the wizarding world was. It was a world that he had gone and hoped for when he was a child.

Tom walked into the Great Hall Halloween morning to find the usual decorations. Thousands of candles and jack-o-lanterns were floating in midair, and hundreds of live bats were flying around or clinging to the torches. All of the ghosts were also in the Great Hall lazily gliding around talking to the students and adding a touch to the theme.

He silently walked to the Slytherin table, inclining his head as he passed the Bloody Baron and took his seat at his normal spot. Unfortunately he only had five minutes to himself before his followers and Quentin surrounded him.

"Morning Riddle." Malfoy said taking a seat on his right.

"Hello darling." Quentin said sitting on his left. She was sitting so close to him that she was practically in his lap. "So Tom, the masquerade ball is tonight, who are you going with?" She asked and moved closer to him if it was possible.

In response he got up and moved to the other side of the table and further down. As always she couldn't get a hint and followed him.

"That was rude," She said sitting down by him, "I just asked you a simple question." She pouted.

He glared at her, "Your question is to idiot to answer." He got up and left the table.

Amber was walking down the stairs, her hands full of papers. She was looking over the plans for tonight's dance making sure that everything was perfect. She was so caught up in the plans she didn't notice or feel herself bump into someone until they yelled at her.

"Watch it!" Tom snapped.

Without looking up she replied, "Sorry." And she walked into the Great Hall.

She walked down the allies without looking up and took her normal seat at the Ravenclaw table. She only looked up from her plans when Scott and Helen Clearwater, a fellow Ravenclaw, sat down next to her.

"Morning Amber." Scott said grabbing a piece of toast.

"Morning." She mumbled looking back down at the paper she was holding.

"You're still working on that?" Helen asked picking up one of the papers she had placed on the table.

"Not really, everything is done, but I'm just looking over things to make sure that nothing is wrong. Where's Elizabeth?" She asked glancing at the Hufflepuff table.

"She's still up stairs in her dorm, why do you need her?" Helen asked.

"Nothing important, just wondering if she did her charms homework." Amber replied.

"That reminds me did you do it and if you did can I copy it?" Scott begged.

She rolled her eyes, "You know how I feel about copying."

"Right, well then I must go and find someone who will let me copy. See you later." He said and left.

"Anyway, so who are you going to the ball with?" Amber asked.

"Oh some boy in Gryffindor, but how about you? Who are you going with?" She asked sounding excited.

"No one."

She gasped, Helen was such a drama queen, she always blew things out of proportion, "But didn't you have like ten people ask you?"

"Yes."

"Then why don't you go with one of them?"

"Because I really didn't want to go with any of them." She said irritably.

"There is someone else isn't there?" She said ignoring her tone, she leaned forward, "Is it Scott?"

"What? No, it isn't him. I just don't want to have a date you know? I just want dance with any boy, that way I don't feel like I have to dance with one person." She said shrugging her shoulders.

"Right, well we will just see tonight." She said sounding like she still didn't believe her.

"I guess we will."

She hated lying to her friends, but she knew if she told them who she was hoping to go with, they would probably kill her. She also hated that she wanted to go with no other then Tom Riddle.

She knew what happened last week made her want to go with him. After what happened you would think by his reaction that he would want to spend time with her, he had begged her not to leave his room. But she knew that it was stupid to think that he would do anything for her, let alone be with her.

She sighed in her frustration and went back to her breakfast, but what she didn't know a floor below her, the boy she was thinking about, was doing the same thing.

Tom was leaning against the wall, his arms folded across his chest. He was down in the dungeons since he knew nobody would be down here at the moment. He was thinking about tonight.

He knew that tonight would be a bad time for another attack, the halls would be filled with teachers who wouldn't be at the ball. But that wasn't what he was really thinking about.

The week before where they had their argument in his room was still in his mind. He couldn't help it. He closed his eyes and imagened her lips on his. He took a deep breath and leaned his head against the wall. He found himself being pathetic needing her so bad that he had to resort to imaging of them together. But he couldn't help it, she intoxicated him, and he only wanted more.

He never really was that good with his emotions, he usually blocked out the compassion, liking someone feelings, and any other feelings that had to do with the other ones. He only allowed himself to feel hatred, excitement towards some things, but mostly nothing, like his goal was to be an empty shell. And to his delight, he had done that.

But not now. All those years of building up these walls of defenses and thinking that he was just an empty shell where now crumbling around him and his empty shell was filling with, did he dare say it, compassion and maybe even love?

He opened his eyes, he was done playing around with all the questions. Tonight he would finally have them all answered, there would be no more guessing after this.

Hour's late Amber was up in her old dorm room with the other seventh year Ravenclaws getting ready. Many of the girls were rushing past each other, running into the bathroom to do their make up and hair, others rummaging through their things looking for their shoes, jewelry, and other objects.

As she was standing in the bathroom putting her make up on, she was again wondering why she wasn't in her new dorm room doing this. She felt another girl slightly nudge her trying to get to the mirror. Holding back a glare, she exited the bathroom and almost ran into Helen.

"Oh my goshs Amber you look gorgeous!" She squeaked.

"You do to." She said looking Helen up and down.

She wore a lilac dress with slightly puffed out at the bottom. Her top of her dress came down in a v-neck revealing more cleavage then would be allowed in classes. She was already wearing her mask, which was also lilac with glitter and short feathers on it.

Amber on the other hand wore an ivory dress. Unlike Helen's it wasn't as revealing. The dress fitted her hourglass shaped frame well and the dress fell into a bell shape at the bottom. The fabric on her back came together to make three waves that fanned out.

"I still can't believe that you said no to all of those boys. What you are wearing will only tempt them, was that your plan?" Helen asked smiling, she snapping a fan out for dramatic.

Amber smiled too, "I wasn't going for tempting, but now that you mention it, I think I may tempt a few boys."

"Oh that is different, I never knew you had a tease in you." She said playful fanning herself.

She shrugged her shoulders, "Well there is a first time for everything. Shall we go down?" She said putting on her own mask.

Since Helen's date, Scott, and Elizabeth weren't in Ravenclaw, they would have to go down to the Great Hall to meet them. As they walked down the stairs, they were greeted by a few whistles from masked boys or polite greetings. Ignoring them, they walked out of the common room.

They walked down the marble staircases into a sea of masked people who were looking for friends or their dates from other house. Immanently Helen broke away mumbling something about finding her date. Amber on the other hand just stood there searching the crowded.

A group of Slytherins walked up from the dungeons. In the lead was a tall boy with black and silver dress robes. A silver mask covered half of his face and his hair. She knew who he was because of his arrogant strut and the way he held himself as if he was more important then everyone in this room, not to mention the silver hair.

On Malfoys arm was Quentin in a silver dress to match his dress robes. Her smile and face shown with triumphant on her achievement of getting a spectacular date. Amber narrowed her eyes at what she saw, it somewhat way made her want to be sick.

The group of Slytherins past by the marble staircase. A few of the boys quickly glanced up at her and gave a wolfish grin before turning away. Even Malfoy looked up at her or more liked eyed her in a disgusting way.

"Amber!" Someone called her name.

She looked through the crowd to see who called her name. A tall boy dressed in black, red, and gold dress robes wearing a red mask trimmed with gold to match was pushing his way through the crowd to get to her. Finally he was able to reach her and smiled up at her.

"Whoa you look absolutely stunning." Scott said looking her up and down.

"Thank you. You look very handsome." She said smiling.

At that moment a girl in a pale pink dress and mask came walking up to them with her date. "Hello everyone." She said.

"Hello Elizabeth." Amber said once she heard her voice.

"Elizabeth how in the world can you see anything with all those feathers?" Scott asked referring to the foot long pink feathers covering her mask.

"I can see fine thank you." She said stroking one of the long feathers.

There came a ring sound announcing that the dance was ready to begin and that the students were allowed to go down to the Quidditch field were the dance would be held.

Everyone started moving when Scott held out his arm, "Would you honor me to let me escort you down?"

"Don't you have a date though?" She asked raising her eyebrow.

"Nope, I don't have one."

"How is it that you don't have one? I'm sure that any girl would have said yes to a Quidditch Captain, not to mention how good looking you are." She said excepting his arm.

He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, I could ask the same of you." He said leading her out the doors.

She shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know."

They walked down to the field making small talk. Elizabeth, Helen, and their dates ended up walking with them. Finally they walked out onto the field.

Elizabeth gasped, "Whoa you did a great job."

The goal hoops and the stands were taken away leaving a clear field. There was a full moon out tonight and a sea of stars. Rose bushes lined the field with multicolored lights in them, which turned out to be fairies who were also floating in the air. There was a water fountain that trickled into a pond filled with different fish. Black and orange streamers were lazily gliding through the air as if they were serpents in water. There were tables upon tables laden down with food and drinks. And the final touch was a path that led off into a garden.

The orchestra was starting to play, the sound of different instruments started softly as in a slow dance. Many of the couples stood back as if they didn't know what to do. Finally after a few minutes and a few of the teachers started to dance, other people start filing out onto the dance floor.

"Would you like to dance?" Scott asked her, holding out his hand.

"Sure." She taking his hand as he lead her out to the dance floor.

Tom watched her walk out onto the dance floor with Noel. He was mentally kicking himself for not asking her to dance with him first. He should have been the one to ask her first. But no, he was here hiding. No, not hiding, just observing he said trying to convince himself.

He had watcher her come down the marble staircase and she had taken his breath away. Her dress seemed as if it was made of water as it trailed out behind her. Her tan skin had matched well with her ivory dress and her black hair which was pulled back into an elegant bun with a few curls that had escaped. But it was her eyes that had caught his attention. Her soft gray eyes blended with her simple silk mask, which was also ivory. They seemed to light up as she entered the room. There were no words for the way that she was dressed tonight but beautiful.

He had followed her and her friends down to the field at a distance, never taking his eyes off of her. He had longed to walk her down here, but no he was here, watching her dance with another man. This made his mouth tighten.

She twirled around and was pulled back into Scott's arms. He smiled down at her as he dipped her. He pulled her back up as the song ended in a whisper of the violins. She stepped away from him and clapped with the rest of the crowded. She turned to look at Scott, as he was about to ask her to dance again, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see a man standing there.

"May I have this dance?" He asked holding out his hand.

She didn't have time to answer before the music started again and found herself dancing with the mystery man and being swept away from Scott, who was still standing there.

Instead of commenting on how rude that was, she just studied her partner. He was about a head taller then her. He was dressed in deep emerald dress robes trimmed with black. His mask was all black and covered half his face making it impossible to recognize him like so many others. But he was different then the others. He had a sort of air about him that she couldn't place what it was, but it was his eyes that held hers.

He was staring at her. His eyes held a sort of a chilling coldness in them, and a burning dangerous power. The way he stared at her was a look of he knew what he wanted but couldn't have something. Sort of a longing look.

She never knew so many emotions could be in one look. She tried to place a name with him, but ended up coming blank. After a few minutes she gave up trying and just danced.

They didn't say anything through the whole inter song. Once the song had ended she pulled away, but felt his hands tighten on her waist and pulled her in closer.

"Again?" He commanded in a whisper.

She narrowed her eyes, "No." She said and tried to pull away.

"And why not?" He asked pulling her back as the music started again.

"Because I don't know you and I don't like your tone." She said, but started to dance with him anyway.

"I am only asking you for this dance because I want to talk to you." He said ignoring her comment and looking away, "First I wanted to say that you were right."

She frowned, "All right."

"And I know that we haven't really started off on the right foot, but, I don't know." He said still not looking at her, "This is really hard for my to say but, I'm getting these little feelings for you."

"Oh, well I'm sorry, but I don't know if I can return your feelings." She said.

His head snapped back to look at her, "What do you mean? I thought?"

"I'm sorry but I like this other person."

His grip tighten on her, "Who?"

"Why should I tell you? I don't even know who you are. Besides, he is to big headed and arrogant to even know that I like him." She snipped.

She watched as his mouth thinned into a tiny line. Without saying a word her took her hand and pulled her off of the dance floor.

Amber was so confused that she didn't really realize that he had pulled her away from the dance floor and was taking her into the garden. So instead of fighting him and out of curiosity, she let him take her.

They passed other boys who were either leading their giggling dates to a hidden place and other people just admiring the garden. The mystery man still had her hand in a slightly tight grip so she wouldn't run away. His pace was a brisk walk as if he wanted to get somewhere fast but not wanting to seem to eager.

Finally after they reached the middle of the garden. There was a gazebo standing in the middle. He lead her up the stairs and finally let go of her hand, but didn't face her. Instead he walked over to the railing and stared at a rosebush.

She stood there staring at him still trying to figure out who he was and why on earth did he bring her here. After a few minutes of silence, she turned to go, but his words broke the silence and her movement.

"You would think after all this time you would know who I am."

She turned around, "Well I'm sorry if I can't tell who you are since you are wearing a mask."

He turned around and faced her, a blood red rose in his hands, "This flower is so beautiful, it is a pity that someday it will wilt and die." He said rubbing its petals between his long fingers.

She watched his fingers. He walked closer to her where they were now only a few inches apart. She looked up into his face and saw the same look as they were dancing in his eyes. She was so lost in his eyes that she didn't even notice his arms move until she felt the stem of the rose in her hands. She looked down at her hand to see the flower there.

He gently raised his hand and brushed back a stray curl, she glanced up at him at his touch and then back at the flower. He lowered his head where it was by her ear. She could feel his hot breath on her neck sending shivers down her spine.

"Say my name." He whispered.

She closed her eyes, "But I…"

"You know who I am."

She looked up at him, into his cold blue eyes and she knew, "Tom."

A smile curled on his lips and he slowly moved his head down until their lips were touching. She didn't really know what he was doing until he broke away.

"Took you long enough." He said.

"But I thought you wouldn't come to this."

"I changed my mind." He said matter of fact.

"I feel really stupid for not figuring out that it was you. I mean with the way you took me away from Scott, "

"How else would I have gotten to dance with you?"

"The way you commanded my to stay,"

"Then I wouldn't have been able to say those things."

"And then you leading me away, that was nice."

"I had to talk to you in private."

"That reminds me, what was I right about now that I know that it's you?" She asked.

His mouth twitched in annoyance, "You were right about me liking you, that I can't control everything, that it is almost impossible for me to have friends, but most importantly that I do hide my anger and hate behind a mask."

"I was right all about that?" She said sounding shocked.

"Well yes, maybe a little more you're right about, but that's not important right now." He said leaning against the railing.

"All right, but why are you telling me this now?" She asked folding her arms, the petals grazing her arm.

He looked up at the sky and started talking to it, "Because I finally figured out my questions."

"You mean the ones about love and emotions?" She asked raising her eyebrow.

"Yes."

"And what does it have to do with me?"

He looked back down at her, "Because I have…feelings."

"Feelings?"

"Yes feelings."

"For me?"

"Yes! God and I thought you were smart." He yelled throwing his hands up in the air.

"Hey!" She said angrily.

"No, I didn't mean it like that." He said more calmly coming up to her. He cupped her chin in his hand, "Look, I like you a lot. And for once in my life I have been wrong and I am experiencing feelings that I have never had before. I don't want these feelings to go away and I want you."

Her mouth twitched as she fought back a smile, "That is probably the nicest thing that you have ever said to me." She grabbed his collar and brought his mouth down to hers and she kissed him.

Author's Note: Ok so there was chapter 12! I hope you liked it!


	13. Just Another Day in Paradise

**Author's Note: **Ok so here is chapter 13! A big thanks to these reviewers for reviewing! **Lovebehindsilvermask, brokenheart, redvelvet, crazy4band, snowredrose, and Hawalainocean. ** Anyway, here is chapter 13, enjoy!

**Behind the Mask**

**Chapter 13: Just Another Day in Paradise **

She could feel his hot breath on the back of her neck. Her eyes were tightly shut as she listened to his breathing. It was slow and relaxed, in and out. His arm was lazily laid across her stomach and his face on the arm of the couch and in her hair. They were both still in their dress robes from the night before, her dress trailing off the couch and onto the floor. The memory of last night was bliss for her.

She couldn't remember the last time she had been kissed in the way that Tom had kissed her. His cool fingers trailing down the nape of her neck raising goose bumps on her arms. The way he held her close to him making sure there was little room as possible. Somehow they had managed to leave the dance and they found themselves in the common room.

Nearby the clock made a chiming sound. With her eyes still closed, she felt Tom stir by her. He shifted positions and she knew that he was awake. She felt his body stiffen is shock she suspected as he silently moved his arm off of her. Without touching or moving her he slid off of the couch. She opened her eyes to see the tail of his dress robes disappear up the stairs. She sighed, well this was a start.

She thanked Merlin that it was Saturday or else she would have probably skipped class. Once she heard Toms door shut, she got up and went to her own room and slept.

Hours later there was a pounding on her door and she woke with a jerk. Groggily she looked over at the clock, it read two in the afternoon. Had she really slept that late?

Someone was still pounding on her door, "Amber are you in there?" Elizabeth called.

She rolled out of bed, wishing that she could go back to sleep, but instead she went to open the door. Elizabeth and Scott were standing outside, both had worried looks.

"Dear God what happened to you?" Elizabeth asked wrinkling her nose.

"Afternoon to you too." Amber mumbled and went back to her bed.

"What happened to you last night? We lost track of you after you finish dancing with Scott." Elizabeth said sitting down in a chair.

"I danced with a guy and then I came back to the common room." She said, she didn't really feel like getting into details at the moment.

"Why did you leave and who was this mystery man?" Elizabeth asked excitedly.

"I left because I wanted to." She said.

"And who was this man?" Scott asked sitting by her.

"Well she wouldn't know or else we wouldn't be calling him mystery man." Elizabeth said rolling her eyes.

"Thank you Captain Obvious." He said.

"You're welcome Sergeant Moron."

Amber giggled, "Well I do know who mystery man is."

Elizabeth sat up in her chair, "You do? Why didn't you tell us? Oh my gosh did you bring him back up here? You little mink!"

"I cannot believe you just called her a mink. She wouldn't do that, did you?" Scott asked frowning at her.

"Well of course he came back with me. He sleeps in the room right next to me." She said picking at her comforter.

Elizabeth gasped, "Tom! I can't believe you snogged Tom!"

"You didn't! Amber how could you? I thought you knew better then to kiss him, let alone trust him." Scott said angrily.

"Calm down both of you. So what if I kissed him? I think he really does care for me, even if he doesn't act like it."

"Are you kidding me? Tom is the Ice Prince and a Slytherin; there is no way in the world that he could care about anyone but himself." Scott said with disgust.

"I have to agree with Scott, I think Tom is just using you." Elizabeth said seriously.

Amber sighed, she knew they would take it like this, "If anyone had told me Tom would like me a month ago I would had laughed. But it is true; he does have feelings for me."

"Fine, then let's go ask him." Scott said getting up.

"No, he won't tell anyone that he like me." She said grabbing his arm and pulled him back down.

"Why?" He said sitting back down, "Is he afraid to tell people that he likes you? To great to like someone from a different house?"

"No I don't think that is it, well maybe a little, but still, he likes me. If he chooses not to tell anyone well that's his choice. I'm not going to force him to say anything." Amber said suppressing a yawn.

"Wow I bet any boy would like you. One night stand, doesn't care if they are together or not, yep, I wish I was you." Elizabeth teased.

Amber frowned, "Well when you put it like that it makes me sound like I'm easy and a slut."

"But you're not," Scott said throwing a dirty look at Elizabeth, "But if you keep doing whatever you're doing with Tom then it's probably going to look that way to others. Besides, you could do so much better than him."

"Like who?" Elizabeth asked eyeing him.

"Well…that doesn't matter at the moment. But you…Amber? Amber?"

Amber was fast asleep on her bed, she was snoring.

"Well I think we got through to her or we bored her to death." Elizabeth said.

As Scott and Elizabeth argued on how to make Amber understand their views, Tom was in the next room pacing back and forth trying to figure out a way to deal with last night.

He couldn't even remember what happened after they had kissed in the garden. All he knew was that they had ended up in the common room and that he had never been kissed like that before. He had been with many other girls before and every single one of them had done nothing for him, but Amber, as much as he hated to admit, she was the only girl that had made his knees weak.

Of course after this thought he couldn't sleep or do anything besides pace back and forth thinking about this thought.

How could one girl make him feel this way. He had never had a weakness before, well maybe to learn more but he didn't consider this a weakness as others might think. He hated himself that he turned to jelly when she had touched him, he hated that his heart would race by just a glance from her, but what he hated most of all was her in general. Everything she did drove him crazy with desire. Thinking about this made so many emotions that he never thought could be together rushed through him.

He twirled his wand in his hand just so he could remain slightly calm. This was ridiculous, here he was, the greatest wizard that ever lived, pacing back and forth for hours over a mere girl. If anyone found out people would probably stop 

fearing him, thinking that he had gone soft. He couldn't have that, these feelings had to stop no matter what.

That settled it, he would stop seeing her, and then hopefully these feelings would die or get buried again. He would prefer if they would just die, but you can't always have what you want.

With this happy thought he climbed into bed and tried to sleep, but it seemed impossible. All he could think about was Amber and how this tiny pain kept shooting to where his heart would have been.

"WHY YOU BLOODY LITTLE BUGGER!!"

Tom jerked at the sound of the voices. He had jerked so hard that he fell off his bed and hit the floor; a stinging pain went up his arm. Cursing he stumbled to the door and opened it.

When he got down stairs he found Flint and Malfoy sitting on the couch. Noel, at the moment, was being held back by Heart. He heard a door slam and footsteps. Amber was in the room in a second with her wand out.

"What's going on?" She demanded.

Tom felt a wave of desire wash over him. He loved the way she took command and how she demanded people around, it kind of reminded him of a female version of himself. Wait, he shouldn't be feeling that, he pushed the thought out of his head. He was so lost in these thoughts and feeling he almost didn't catch what Noel was saying.

"Oh it's just the same old usual, the Slytherin bugger wants me to kill him." Scott spat.

"Ha like you could kill me, what were you going to do? Beat the living daylights out of me?" Malfoy sneered, Flint chuckled.

"Yes I am going to do just that, see how tough you really are." Scott growled.

"You are such a Muggle, using your fist instead of a wand. Ha, I could easily destroy you." Malfoy threatened, taking out his wand, Flint also took out his wand.

Tom quickly glanced at Amber, she seemed calm, but he knew that she was angry. She was twirling her wand in a certain motion, he fought a grin, he knew what she was about to do.

Noel was fighting harder to get away from Heart, "Shut your mouth! Muggle-borns and half bloods are more than twice the wizard you are!"

Amber was moving her wand, she glanced at Tom. His eyes darkened when Scott said this, but the look was gone when she looked again. Maybe she had been wrong; it was probably the trick of the light she concluded.

"You are acting very barbaric Noel; I would think that even a Pure Blood who is in love with a Mudblood would be more civil." Malfoy said rolling his eyes.

"Why don't you go jump in the lake." Elizabeth snarled.

"Haha that is…" But his words were cut short.

Both Malfoy and Flint lost their voices by the silencing charm that Amber put on them. Then their skin started to turn bright red and their skin started to become puffy as if they were stung all over by bees.

Elizabeth let out a squeak of disgust and Scott started to laugh. Amber walked forward, "Well if I was you I would be heading down to the Hospital Wing to get that cleared up." She said smiling.

Malfoy and Flint glared at her, they both tried to get up, but fell back down winching in pain.

"Scott, Elizabeth, ready to go?" She asked turning to them.

"Sure why not." Scott said looking at them one last time laughing, "You're lucky she got to you first and I didn't." With that he stepped forward and flicked Malfoys and Flints nose. Both of them whimpered in pain as they glared at him.

"Do you want to take a walk around the lake?" Elizabeth asked, trying not to laugh.

"Sure why not." Amber said. She looked quickly at Tom and then left the room with Elizabeth and Scott.

Once they were gone, Flint and Malfoy looked pleading at Tom for help. Rolling his eyes, he flicked his wand. The swelling went down and they were back to normal in seconds.

"Thanks Tom." Malfoy said touching his face.

"I don't want your thanks, you both are fools." Tom snapped and started to head up to his dorm.

"Stupid Mudblood, how come we didn't see her do that?" Flint asked following him.

"I don't know, but she will pay for that." Malfoy said following them.

Tom suppressed a snort, "There is no way in the world that you would ever be able to get her back. She's too smart. Besides, do you want to get beat up again Malfoy?"

Malfoy blushed, "She didn't beat me up, she just punched me."

Flint chuckled, "Just punched you? She literally made you cry like a five year old girl because she punched you so hard."

"I didn't cry."

"I heard you when you got to your dorm."

"Both of you be quite." Tom commanded as he opened his door.

"Sorry." They both said in union.

"By the way, where did you go last night? I only saw you for a second and then you disappeared." Malfoy said sitting down in a chair.

"I came back up here; I found the dance to be dull so I left." He said lying on his bed.

"Why did you even go then?" Flint asked.

"I just wanted to see how Lynwood did. I didn't want her to make a fool of me by making a disgrace of the ball." He said sounding bored.

"But she did it by herself, why would you be dragged into it?" Flint asked.

"Because I am Head Boy and I was suppose to help. Now stop asking me questions." He snapped.

"Well I think she did a great job, for a Mudblood." Flint said shrugging his shoulders.

"No she didn't." Malfoy said, but there was a hint in his voice where he agreed.

Tom's thoughts started to drift away from their conversation. It was time for another attack or some kind of appearance from the Slytherin Heir. Maybe he would send out the basilisk to petrify another student, maybe if he was luck he could get the Care for Magical Creatures teacher Miss. Snow, who was a Muggle-Born.

With that happy thought he started to plan the next attack.

**Author's Note: **Ok so there was chapter 13, hope you liked it. I'm sorry that this chapter took so long, I will be better at updating.


	14. A Taste of Fear

**Author's Note: **Ok so here is chapter 14! A big thanks to these reviewers! **iheartmuffins, snowredrose, TRfan190, TiMeWaVe, **. Anyway, here is chapter 14, enjoy!

**Behind the Mask**

**Chapter 14: A Taste of Fear**

"You want me to assign someone to keep an eye on our top student?" Dippet asked raising his eyebrow at Dumbledore.

"That is correct." Dumbledore said calmly.

"Albuse you must be barking mad!" Dippet exclaimed as he got up from his desk, "Why in the world would I want to assign someone to spy on Tom Riddle? He hasn't done anything wrong!"

"He hasn't done anything wrong _yet_ or so we know of." Dumbledore replied.

Dippet went to his cabinet and grabbed a bottle of fire whiskey, "Do you have any proof that Tom has done something bad?"

Dumbledore shifted slightly, "Well…not exactly, more of a hunch."

"A hunch?"

"Yes, I believe that Tom Riddle has been doing something that is illegal."

"And that would be?" Dippet asked as he poured the whiskey into a glass and taking a sip.

"I believe that he is somehow involved with the Chamber of Secrets."

The whiskey that was in his mouth spewed out on his desk, "What? That is impossible; Tom is our greatest student, a role model! Do you have any proof?" Dippet exclaimed slightly choking.

"No I don't, like I said I have a hunch." Dumbledore said calmly.

"Albuse…I'm sorry, but I cannot have someone spy on Mr. Riddle. We don't have any proof and no one would believe that he is involved with the chamber. He has no criminal recorded, he has never misbehaved in any class, and he hasn't even had a detention." He said as Dippets breathing returned to normal.

"But what about what happen at the orphanage that I found him in. The woman in charge there said that he had done terrible things to the other children." Dumbledore replied.

"We don't know if that really happened. Now will you please drop this subject. There is no way in the world that Tom Riddle is petrifying the students here or involved in any way with the Chamber of Secrets." Dippet said almost slamming his glass down.

Dumbledore sighed, he knew Dippet was going to dismiss he request. Who would ever believe that Tom was doing something illegal? Though Dumbledore knew differently, the problem was getting people to believe him.

"Albuse I want you to drop this subject and not to follow Mr. Riddle around. I already have enough problems to deal with and I don't want to add another. Am I making myself clear?" Dippet said taking a large mouthful of whiskey.

"Perfectly clear." Dumbledore smiled back.

Tom was walking down the hallway, planning his next Death Eater meeting when a younger student walked right in to him.

"Watch where you are going." Tom snapped.

"Oh…I'm sorry…I didn't see you there." The girl sniffed, she looked like she had been crying.

"Well try to be more careful next time." He said.

The girl nodded, her big horned glasses slid down her nose. She looked quickly at the ground and ran away.

Children, he thought with disgust. Always sniveling and crying over nothing. He wondered what the girls' name was. Martha? Mary? Myrte? Yes that was it. Wasn't she a muggleborn? A small smile crept to his lips; maybe he could use her for a bit of fun for the basilisk.

Just as he was plotting, he spotted the Ravenclaw Quidditch team walking up the stairs. They must have just gotten off of practice he thought. As the last of the Ravenclaws climbed the stairs, he realized that he was searching for her. Cursing himself he looked away and continued down the hall.

Amber leaned back in her chair. Despite all of the slushy snow, her and team had a good practice. Their next match against Hufflepuff next month would be easy, all most laughable easy.

She giggled at this thought as she open her desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of butterbeer. Thank goodness that the Captains had their own office otherwise she would have had to store all of her treats in her locker like the rest of her team.

As she sipped her drink, Amber started thinking about the Yule Ball that was coming up next month. She wrinkled her nose at the thought; apparently someone had told Dippet that Riddle didn't do anything for the last dance. Since Riddle is a Head Boy, he had to help her plan any activity, or that's what Dippet told her. So she was forced to spend at least an hour a week planning with the jerk.

It had almost been a month now since that night in the dorm room. She thought that Tom would want to actually come out and openly date her or at least talk about what happened. She was greatly disappointed. He did the exact opposite of this, he simply ignored her.

The bottle started to shake in her hand. Quickly she set it down before she through it. That first week all she wanted to do was make Tom Riddles life a living hell. How dare he use her like that, she thought. Scott was more than willing to teach Riddle a lesson for her. But their dream was short lived as Amber and Scott found out. Apparently it was a lot hard to make his life miserable let along beat him up. Tom was always five steps ahead of Scott and he avoided her as much as possible. Amber even wondered if he even used his dorm room anymore.

She sighed, in the end she just gave up and ignored him too, or she tried to. Even though their love hate relationship annoyed her to no end, she was complete head over heels in love with the jerk. At first she tried to deny this thought, but she realized that there was no possible way of denying how she felt. And on some level, she believed that Tom was in love with her too.

The big clock outside made a donging sound which startled Amber. She looked down at her watch, it was seven-thirty, she missed dinner by an hour. Knowing that the house elves would be more than happy to give her food, she left the locker room and headed towards the castle.

Tom pasted the kitchen; he was heading back to the Slytherin dorm room. For the past two weeks he has been sleeping in his old bed. As he walked he tried to convince himself for the sixteenth time that he wasn't hiding but trying to spend more time with his followers.

_Kill, time to kill…._

Tom tried to ignore that soft hiss. The basilisk was on the hunt tonight and Tom wasn't going to get in its way.

As the basilisk moved around the corner, Tom could hear footsteps approaching; he hoped it would be that Myrte girl. As he was about to reach the stairs, the new comer came down and almost ran into him.

"Oh…I'm terribly sor…" the girl stopped short, "Oh Merlin it's you."

"Well hello to you too." He muttered. He noticed that she was still in her uniform and gear; she must have just come up from the field.

She sneered at him, "_You _don't even deserve a hello from me." She was on the fifth stair and he was at the bottom so she could look down on him.

Tom rolled his eyes, "Fine, I don't deserve a hello." It seemed that she was still bitter towards him.

"Ugg, just get out of my way. I'm in no mood to deal with your petty nonsense." She said as she pushed past him roughly.

His mouth tightened as he watched her go. He didn't like being pushed around by anyone.

As he climbed the stairs, he stopped mid-step, realizing something. She was heading in the direction of the kitchen, just where the basilisk was. Oh God, he had to stop her before she reached the basilisk!

He raced back to her, hoping that he wasn't too late. He was getting close to the end of the hall when he caught a glimpse of her blue robe, but it disappeared behind the corner. Cold fear ran down his body, making him numb. It felt like his legs were made of jelly and he was slowing down. He could hear the basilisk moving ahead of him. Oh God he wasn't going to make it…

_KILL! TIME TO KILL!_

**Authors Note: **Haha!! Cliff hanger!!! Please review!


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